First of all, I am adamantly opposed to the death penalty for any reason, and I suspect I’m in the majority here, so any ideas I may offer are about choosing a suitable metaphor. (It occurs to me that this discussion is more fraught in the US, given that the death penalty there is not just an archaic memory.)
That said, I agree that the guillotine is an instrument of the state, and therefore a step removed from the expression of the will of the people. For that reason, I return to my preference of the lamppost as the symbol of the consequences of aristocracy.
Philosophically the lamppost is a better symbol of direct democracy, and it’s a little more thought-provoking for those who think they can hire lawyers to talk them out of anything the official justice system may throw at them.
In practical terms, as an Enhanced Karma Delivery System (EKDS) the lamppost has many advantages. Guillotines require skilled professionals for their manufacture, operation, and maintenance, and must be set up in the public square in advance, allowing the aristocrats time to get injunctions and tie up the whole process in the courts. While this does create some jobs, ultimately the expense will be reflected in the tax bills of hard-working citizens. Lampposts, on the other hand, just repurpose existing infrastructure without affecting its primary function, and hemp is reusable and ultimately compostable when worn out.
The guillotine, moreover, is a bottleneck in the whole aristocrat-processing system. Any hardware breakdown would shut down the whole line and lead to unacceptable delays. The distributed nature of the lamppost scheme would mean that any local failure could be shifted to a nearby venue with little or no impact on throughput.
Finally, any excuse to post an Edith Piaf link is a bonus.
(For those who haven’t the time to post images, I suggest simply posting “It’ll be fine” will come to be common shorthand in these forums, in the same way that “Late stage capitalism” is now.)
