| The links are obviously mine; the italics are Nietzsche's original emphases. Those who advocate Lex Talionis should consider how this reflects upon them as people, or as nexi of power as people. It is thanks to this passage that I cringe when I hear the Election 2000 Presidential Candidates talk about capital punishment.
"As its power increases, a community ceases to take the individual's transgressions so seriously, because they can no longer be considered as dangerous and destructive to the whole as they were formerly: the malefactor is no longer 'set beyond the pale of peace' and thrust out; universal anger may not be vented upon him as unrestrainedly as before -- on the contrary, the whole from now on carefully defends the malefactor against this anger, especially that of those he has directly harmed, and takes him under its protection. A compromise with the anger of those directly injured by the criminal; an effort to localize the affair and to prevent it from causing any further, let alone a general, disturbance; attempts to discover equivalents and to settle the whole matter (compositio); above all, the increasingly definite will to treat every crime as in some sense dischargeable, and thus at least to a certain extent to isolate the criminal and his deed from one another -- these traits become more and more clearly visible as the penal law evolves. As the power and self-confidence of the community increase, the penal law always becomes more moderate; every weakening or imperiling of the former brings with it a restoration of the harsher forms of the latter. The 'creditor' always becomes more humane to the extent that he has grown richer; finally, how much injury can he endure without suffering from it becomes the actual measure of his wealth. It is not unthinkable that a society might attain such a consciousness of power that it could allow itself the noblest luxury possible to it -- letting those who harm it go unpunished. 'What are my parasites to me?' it might say. 'May they live and prosper: I am strong enough for that!'
"The justice which began with, 'everything is dischargeable, everything must be discharged,' ends by winking and letting those incapable of discharging their debt go free: it ends, as does every good thing on earth, by overcoming itself. This self-overcoming of justice: one knows the beautiful name it has given itself -- mercy; it goes without saying that mercy remains the privilege of the most powerful man, or better, his -- beyond the law."
Nietzsche, Friedrich. "Second Essay, Section 10." On the Genealogy of Morals. Trans. Walter Kaufmann. Random House, Inc., Toronto: 1969. | 
