Ghanima Atreides (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
atreideslioness) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2023-09-20 01:26 pm
atreideslioness) wrote in fandomhigh2023-09-20 01:26 pm
Entry tags:
The History of Assassination. Wednesday, First Period [9/20]
As students arrived today, Ghani was putting a very awake and chatty Trebor into what resembled a pack-and-play, except that when she pushed a button, a force field surrounded it.
Look, you deal with assassination threats your way, Ghanima handles them in hers.
"So!" she said, as Trebor made babbling sounds in the background. "Some of you have wondered what is the difference between assassination and murder."
"Perhaps some of you will say money, because a professional killer is historically involved in the vast majority of assassinations, with personal assassination only really coming into fashion in the last few centuries."
"However, the answer is simple: how much of a public figure is the victim? An assassination is the murder of a public figure, and they are often politically motivated. If someone kills your dog, regardless of if they were paid to do it or not, that’s not an assassination, that’s just murder -- unless, perhaps, your dog was running for mayor and there was a disagreement on policy."
This was Fandom Island, Ghanima ruled out nothing.
"So, to be clear, first up, we have homicide," she said, actually walking over the board to write the word large across it. "Homicide is a manner of death, when one person causes the death of another. Not all homicide is murder, as some deaths caused by another person are manslaughter, and some are lawful; such as when justified by an affirmative defense, like insanity or self-defense."
"Then we have murder. The unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another. The victim is a regular person, and the motive is often personal. He murdered her because he suspected her of having an affair. She murdered him for his inheritance. Or it was an impulsive murder fueled by an argument of some kind."
"Then, finally, crowning the pile, is assassination. A murder by sudden or secret attack of a public figure, often for political or religious reasons."
"The earliest known use of the verb "to assassinate" in printed English was by Matthew Sutcliffe in A Briefe Replie to a Certaine Odious and Slanderous Libel, Lately Published by a Seditious Jesuite, a pamphlet printed in 1600, five years before it was used in Macbeth by William Shakespeare. However, assassination as a tool is far older than our use of this particular word for the act."
"The Egyptian pharaoh Teti, of the Old Kingdom Sixth Dynasty in the 23rd century BCE, is thought to be the earliest known victim of assassination, though written records are scant and thus evidence is circumstantial. Two further ancient Egyptian monarchs are more explicitly recorded to have been assassinated; Amenemhat I of the Middle Kingdom Twelfth Dynasty in 20th century BCE is recorded to have been assassinated in his bed by his palace guard, meanwhile contemporary judicial records relate the assassination of New Kingdom Twentieth Dynasty monarch Ramesses III in 1155 BCE as part of a failed coup attempt. Between 550 BC and 330 BC, seven Persian kings of Achaemenid Dynasty were assassinated."
"Both The Art of War, a 5th-century BC Chinese military treatise, and Chanakya's political treatise Arthashastra cover assassination, and its costs. I will teach Art of War either in the spring, or next fall."
"Now, I'm curious. How do you feel about the lines between homicide, murder, and assassination?"
Look, you deal with assassination threats your way, Ghanima handles them in hers.
"So!" she said, as Trebor made babbling sounds in the background. "Some of you have wondered what is the difference between assassination and murder."
"Perhaps some of you will say money, because a professional killer is historically involved in the vast majority of assassinations, with personal assassination only really coming into fashion in the last few centuries."
"However, the answer is simple: how much of a public figure is the victim? An assassination is the murder of a public figure, and they are often politically motivated. If someone kills your dog, regardless of if they were paid to do it or not, that’s not an assassination, that’s just murder -- unless, perhaps, your dog was running for mayor and there was a disagreement on policy."
This was Fandom Island, Ghanima ruled out nothing.
"So, to be clear, first up, we have homicide," she said, actually walking over the board to write the word large across it. "Homicide is a manner of death, when one person causes the death of another. Not all homicide is murder, as some deaths caused by another person are manslaughter, and some are lawful; such as when justified by an affirmative defense, like insanity or self-defense."
"Then we have murder. The unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another. The victim is a regular person, and the motive is often personal. He murdered her because he suspected her of having an affair. She murdered him for his inheritance. Or it was an impulsive murder fueled by an argument of some kind."
"Then, finally, crowning the pile, is assassination. A murder by sudden or secret attack of a public figure, often for political or religious reasons."
"The earliest known use of the verb "to assassinate" in printed English was by Matthew Sutcliffe in A Briefe Replie to a Certaine Odious and Slanderous Libel, Lately Published by a Seditious Jesuite, a pamphlet printed in 1600, five years before it was used in Macbeth by William Shakespeare. However, assassination as a tool is far older than our use of this particular word for the act."
"The Egyptian pharaoh Teti, of the Old Kingdom Sixth Dynasty in the 23rd century BCE, is thought to be the earliest known victim of assassination, though written records are scant and thus evidence is circumstantial. Two further ancient Egyptian monarchs are more explicitly recorded to have been assassinated; Amenemhat I of the Middle Kingdom Twelfth Dynasty in 20th century BCE is recorded to have been assassinated in his bed by his palace guard, meanwhile contemporary judicial records relate the assassination of New Kingdom Twentieth Dynasty monarch Ramesses III in 1155 BCE as part of a failed coup attempt. Between 550 BC and 330 BC, seven Persian kings of Achaemenid Dynasty were assassinated."
"Both The Art of War, a 5th-century BC Chinese military treatise, and Chanakya's political treatise Arthashastra cover assassination, and its costs. I will teach Art of War either in the spring, or next fall."
"Now, I'm curious. How do you feel about the lines between homicide, murder, and assassination?"
Re: Discussion!
Re: Discussion!
Seriously. It was a Thing.
Re: Discussion!
"Heh, yeah," Arden said with an awkward little...well, not laugh. Verbal cringe, maybe? "Probably best not to mix that in here."
Re: Discussion!
Re: Discussion!
"I'm going to do my very best to live my life in as genocide-free a fashion as possible," Arden said a little fervently.
Re: Discussion!
Re: Discussion!
Re: Discussion!
Re: Discussion!
Re: Discussion!
She shrugged. "Not to mention that sanity is a matter of debate at the best of times."
Re: Discussion!