Edit: I intentionally put "bad people" in the title in order to provoke. ๐
If you don't know what I'm talking about:
Black Mirror - Hated in the Nation
I'm not sure how to limit the scope of this discussion, since it touches upon so many areas of morale:
- the value of life
- the right to kill
- vengeance/revenge
- crime
- good and evil
So I encourage you to be articulate and to follow some structure: "what(thesis) - why(evidence) - what (thesis)". Other easy to follow variations, such as "why(background + evidence) - what(thesis)" or "what - why - what - by the way(discussion)" or just a simple "what" are of course good too. I'm not trying exclude comments, and I won't, just encouraging an easy to read discussion. As for me:
I would not kill using a Death Note, unless for some utterly personal vendetta. I would also not kill those that did, if we were talking about some sort of society wide phenomenon. I believe that taking action against human life on the macro scale, such as a nation state against another or such as one confined justice system against one of its subjects (state versus an individual, for instance) or in the fictive case of the above mentioned media, is wrong. This is because I don't believe it right to through politics or legislation qualify or quantify the value of a human life, such as is done in jurisdictions that allow capital punishment. While I'm against such "marco actions" on human life, I for some reason have less of a problem empathizing with the individual victims involved, which is to say, I don't think I'd rage against, say, a grieving mother avenging her murdered child by killing the murderer. But then again, not all individuals have the ability or the capacity to exact revenge and maybe they have to rely on their nation state for some kind of restitution? My opinion is probably logical mess, full of contradictions, but there it is. Feel free to poke holes, in a kind manner!
The existence of the death note proves the existence of the afterlife, and as the one who found it I am clearly the predestined divine ruler of earth.
Using the death note causes ones soul to be irreparably marked and when you die your soul is obliterated (iirc the Shinigami eat it but it's been a while so idk specifics end result is obliteration)
My death note would be used as a tool of power. First to create the ultimate prisoner's dilemma. Simply write down the names of your accomplices, and they will be absolved of all crimes (go to heaven) while you will be given a title of nobility in the kingdom (might as well make your life worthwhile since you won't get the afterlife).
I would even allow the justice system to use it as punishment. Have criminals sentenced to obliteration use it on criminals sentenced to mere death.
Scientists of course would be given a copy. Since it kills the heart, what about pacemakers? There's a small delay in effect implying that it must travel at some speed, so does relatively matter and in principle could you outrun the effect? Can we draw power from soul obliteration? Can we draw power from the afterlife? Can we bridge into the afterlife and turn souls into power gems??? How does the paper know what language to use? Many tests to run, many sadistic villains with damned souls which I'll have to run them.
Also since it would inevitably be used on me in some way, or I would inevitably be forced or tricked into using it, I'll just have to die knowing the memory of tyranny will persist and make it into the afterlife.
Death Note spoilers
Ryuk tells Light that anyone who uses the Death Note will not go to Heaven or Hell after they die. He's technically telling the truth, but...The ending explicitly states that there is no Heaven or Hell. All humans become nothingness when they die. The Death Note user is simply no different in this regard.
The Buddhist idea of karma is that it is the accumulation of your cravings and choices over your lifetime(s) and isn't "you" per se. What we think of as our self ceases to exist at death, and our karma is the condition/cause for another birth. So in that view of rebirth you are defining the conditions for another life by your choices and actions, but that life isn't you. Sounds like karma could still apply in the Death Note universe.
Damn. Well that's why we have a science division, their job is to figure it out. We'll just have to use some made up religion to quell the masses until they've mastered death note theory...