My stupid cat has me thinking about random things.
As you might know, the A'millians have a pretty restricted revenge instinct; in most cases, their instinct is to run away from things.
This is a very different state of mind than the typical human. When wronged, humans (and other primates) tend to get their friends together and beat the living shit out of the perpetrator. Or, at least, they want to do that.
But, while it isn't typical in humans, it is fairly common in other species. For example, cats.
If my stupid cat digs her claws into me for any reason, I get all steamed up and chase her down to kill her. She can run and hide, but that just makes me madder at her insolence;
more resolved to flush her out and exterminate her.
Contrast that to if I wrong her somehow; say I step on her tail. She just jumps and runs out of the way, generally hiding under the bed for a while.
Even when she's angry, she tends toward an attitude of "just leave me the fuck alone!" rather than "I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!"
The only time she actually attacks is if she wants to initiate it, such as hunting or playing, or if she is left with little choice - running has failed or isn't an option to begin with (defending territory for example), and she's forced to fight.
Now, there's other scenarios that I don't know about; I've never murdered her friend, so I'm not sure if the cat would seek revenge in that kind of situation, but I doubt it.
This is a very different state of mind than what I have inside my own brain. It makes staying in character quite a bit harder, and complicates some stories. There are historical and evolutionary changes too, but since this kind of behavior seems common among animals in the real world, I'm not concerned about the plausibility there.
But, story wise, imagine doing a cop show with A'millians (trust me, I have been
). What kind of motives would be common for the crimes? What kind of crime would we see?
If you list common motives for murder, what comes to mind?
Revenge is probably the first one that comes to mind. This might be my twisted brain (I'm willing to murder someone for looking at me wrong on the street; I might be excessively violent, even for a human!), but we see it very often in television too.
Counted in revenge would probably be most cases of extreme emotional disturbance, too.
Money - sure, that can happen. It will hopefully be less common there, thanks to things like the guaranteed income, but it wouldn't be eliminated. (Indeed, saying greed is gone brings on a whole pile of unintended consequences that I wouldn't want to touch anyway.)
Sex - eh, asexual 11 months of the year and naturally monogamous really takes this down too (seduction too!). A sexually based murder would probably still happen (the guy she
didn't pick of course! Actually, this is potentially compelling courtroom drama material. The hormones made me do it - You don't know what it's like to be pair-bonded then discarded! It's in-universe reason enough for severe depression and suicide, and has thus been enshrined in law as invioable rights. What if it leads to murder?), but it wouldn't be as common.
There's plenty of good motive left, but taking revenge out still is a pretty big change.
What about on the "order" side of the fence? How does this affect punishment from crime? One aspect of justice in the real world is fulfilling the need for revenge with the victim and his/her family.
I think it would actually not be that much different. While there might not be an emotional drive for it, there are still social benefits to punishment. (Probably why the instinct evolved in the first place.) The law can include retribution in punishment as a thought out, rational method of keeping the peace. That said, there would be some differences. Would you still want consent from the victim when arranging a plea bargain? Maybe, but not necessarily; the answer wouldn't be "I want to see him pay for what he's done!". Probably more along the lines of "just keep it from happening again", which is already a main goal of any criminal justice system.
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My dumbass cat made me think of something else earlier today too. It isn't much, but it being nothing is exactly what I found significant.
When she wants something from me or just wants to look at me, she tends to look at my face. My body is much larger than her's; she could watch my legs much more easily and still know where I am and what I'm basically doing, but she looks at my face.
This is nothing special; it is the way all humans, from the littleist babies right on up, communicate. But it is interesting because she isn't human, but still acts in a very similar way.
I wonder if this is a learned behavior she got from living with us, or just a common instinct that we all share. I figure it is the latter, which is potentially interesting with an alien.
A realistic alien (which I have *not* done here, of course) wouldn't share a common ancestor with us. Little things we take for granted, even with our animals, wouldn't necessarily be present. I think the most alien thing wouldn't be their appearance or culture or anything. It would be those little things that we all share, but they don't, that would really irk us.
Yes, I'm Captain Obvious, but well, yeah.