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| Lord Louis Mountbatten (1900 - 1979) |
During the past few days in humanities, we have been studying about Julius Caesar's assassination. Today, we widened our study and looked at some other people who have been assassinated in the past century. We got into groups, each group assigned a person to focus on. My group and I were given Lord Louis Mountbatten to research about. Mountbatten was a member of the Royal British Family, as well as a commander in the Navy. This made him quite powerful and skilled, and the same goes to Julius Caesar - he was the Consul for many years, and was later worshipped by the people of Rome. His skills on the battlefield also made him stand out, which contributed to how much power he had. Both were leaders - powerful, skilled, important people. And both were assassinated. You can see this pattern occur in many assassinations as well. The reason why people get assassinated is often because they pose some kind of threat to a group of people, often the killer(s), but not necessarily. Caesar was getting too powerful and was on his way to dictatorship, and then the Senate that the Romans were so proud of would not exist anymore, and that was why Caesar was assassinated. Mountbatten was a powerful and influential man, and therefore he was an important target to their cause. All assassinations are for a purpose, and almost always there's a benefit the comes with it. Some assassinations might just be a revenge on the victim, but most actually benefit the group of people that's being threatened by the person/victim. Another reason why people are assassinated is to draw attention toward the assassin. For example, the IRA decided to kill Lord Louis Mountbatten was partly also to draw attention towards there cause in wanting to become a separate country.
Whether assassinations are justified are not, it depends on its purpose. Like I said before, some assassinations are just for the sake of revenging and getting equal on the victim. However, if the assassination was for the general good of the people, then there is a way that it can be justified. If killing one person would save a large number of people, or prevent something extremely bad from happening, then the cause would be worth it and therefore most likely justified. Let's make it clear that justified means that it is done for a reasonable, worthy cause, but it doesn't mean that it's right, and definitely doesn't mean that people can kill other people as long as they have their own 'reason'. I don't think killing is ethical or righteous whatever the case, but in some it can be justified and accepted.
