I deplore brutality. It's not efficient. On the other hand, prolonged mistreatment, short of physical violence, gives rise, when skillfully applied, to anxiety and a special feeling of guilt. A few rules or rather guiding principles are to be borne in mind. The subject must not realize that the mistreatment is a deliberate attack of an anti-human enemy on his personal identity. He must be made to feel that he deserves any treatment he receives because there is something (never specified) horribly wrong with him. The naked need of the control addicts must be decently covered by an arbitrary and intricate bureaucracy so that the subject cannot contact his enemy direct.
-- William S. Burroughs, via Naked Lunch
(The Big, Bad, bullies & axemen of this bullying world the day of exposure is coming...)

I think if we throw him in the river and he floats he is most definitely guilty and we should therefore kill him; of course, if he drowns, then he can rest in peace, completely exonerated...
· As One Who Did not Drown, I am Richly Guilty [RoadtoSurfdom]