<!-- bryant-content-generator:start --> # We speak of civilized restraint as though it were... > {{We speak of civilized restraint as though it were our resting state and violence the aberration, and the historical record answers with a laugh.}} Laws against murder, courts, penalties, taboos, police, treaties, locks, passwords, metal detectors, restraining orders, prisons and the entire planetary architecture of surveillance are not monuments to our innocence. They{Locks, laws, courts and prisons{ are technologies built around what human beings know other human beings will do the moment the cost of doing it drops.}} {{Nobody deadbolts a door against an angel.}} {{Every lock is a small monument to human nature, and every prison is a cathedral.}} **Source:** [[books/Chimping Out|Chimping Out]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “We speak of civilized restraint as though it were our resting state and violence the aberration, and the historical record answers with a laugh. Laws against murder, courts, penalties, taboos, police, treaties, locks, passwords, metal detectors, restraining orders, prisons and the entire planetary architecture of surveillance are not monuments to our innocence. They are technologies built around what human beings know other human beings will do the moment the cost of doing it drops. Nobody deadbolts a door against an angel. Every lock is a small monument to human nature, and every prison is a cathedral.” — Bryant McGill https://bryantmcgill.com/passages/passages-speak-civilized-restraint-every-prison-cathedral ``` <!-- bryant-content-generator:end -->