well-ordered society depended on clear rules and punishment for violators rather than benevolence
Michi,
I'd be all for it if the sentence read 'well-ordered society depended on clear rules and punishment for violators rather than benevolent punishment".
Discipline is the key to everything entailing success. Dope heads & drunkards & greedy morons are not desirable members of society !

Thanks Michi

For your profound comment about China always having a centralised, oppressively authoritarian leadership [to maintain control of China's vast territory and many peoples].

The same could also be said of Russia under the Tsars, Communist Red "Tsars" and now Leader for Life, Putin.

Michi when I last checked you were over 90 years old, in Japan. So I'm glad you are still writing.

Regards

Pete

Individual and Plantagenet, thank you for your comments.

I have never been good at arithmetic but I guess I am not so old as 90.
I cannot resist the temptation to tell you the jokes that I heard a week ago. I went to the funeral with my wife of a man who introduced her to me. He was 86 years old. His family always loved jokes. His son said, "My father boasted he would live to be 150 but he fell about half of the way." The wife said, "My husband had been in good health. I am very proud he began to see doctors of all sorts only in his old age, but fortunately he had never been to an obstetrician and a pediatrician.