To be fair, that means the rest of the world�s population get to knee you in the groin too. And while I am a girl, with no, erhm soft fruit, between the legs, it still hurts darn badly. So maybe civilization isn�t that bad a thing after all.

I still don�t like it. Civilization that is. Manners, courtesy, the whole civilized fa�ade. After all, I bet our ancestors just went out and bashed each other�s brains out when they felt displeased with each other. Of course this meant that the genes for the tendency to bash the other guy�s brains out were halved. On the other hand, it just meant that the winner�s genes were passed on and men just invented more and more sophisticated ways of smacking the crap out of the other. And of course in later years people who weren�t that great at physical combat got around that by inventing civilized but less physical ways of hurting the other.

I think I like the "vent your feelings on something physical" bit, better. Why not have it such that I alone get to knee the stupid smug fellow with the sneering face in the groin and watch him squirm on the floor and give him a couple of hard stomps to the stomach as a bonus? Woot.

Now picture that. A beautiful mental image. Gratifying. But of course, the "civilized" part of me will be horrified, and the "civilized" society would be shocked and horrified out of their collective wits. That taints the whole beauty of the mental image.

And of course, karma being the fickle thing that it is means I will get my comeuppance too. And one of the Buddhist teachings is that enmity is not overcome by enmities. Blah. Restrictions, restrictions. If not one, then the other.