"Fear follows crime and is its punishment."
- Voltaire
Okay, so lets say that I kill someone. Let's say his name was Aidan and he was Irish or something along those lines. Now lets suspend reality even more and say that I got caught. The evidence is airtight and noncircumstantial. And there's no hope for my lawyer for getting me off (and me shouting that he deserved it, that he was asking for it, that I won and that's all that matters didn't really help either) and this is his only defense: that I am insane. And they'd diagnose me and say it was true and lock me up in the big white room with the fluffy everywhere. And why? Because I'm insane and cannot help myself. The punishment isn't really fair
The same goes for Candide.
This is not to say that he's insane. Not at all. Our boy is many things: naive, a bit stupid, a bit rash, etc. But he is not insane. It's the naivety and the stupidity as a result of his naivety. And you can't punish someone for being stupid. It's not his fault or something that he can help. He just doesn't understand. He grew up behind castle walls thinking they were the best of all possible worlds. He doesn't know how the real world works. He doesn't know better. He doesn't know that walking away from the army may seem deserting or how evil recruiters look. Most if not all of his punishments were results of him not getting it.
One time he was punished because of Pangloss. This may be taken as a result of his nativity. If he was more worldly, he may have known that hanging with Pangloss would only lead to trouble. But he's not the one to day the words. Those may or may not have been his beliefs. But he is punished for who he associates with. And that's never right.
But it happens.
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