Depending on Execution

by Theodore Dalrymple (November 2015)

Depend upon it, Sir,’ said Doctor Johnson, ‘when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.’ Actually, it concentrates more than just his mind: it concentrates his character, especially if he is innocent, as the vast majority of people executed in the twentieth century were.  more>>>

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3 Responses

  1. A fine essay. And one VERY minor detail, in case Mr. Dalrymple or NER should like to make the correction: I strongly suspect that Mrs. Kerzeniowska’s first husband was actually named Wincenty KerzeniowskI (the former & latter names are, respectively, the feminine and masculine forms of an ordinary Polish surname).

  2. An excellent essay and reflections, and from a moral point of view, a good deed by Dr. Daniels/Dalrymple, reminding us just how evil the crimes of the Soviet regime were, very often against its own citizens.

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