Despite the Thane’s natural desire to vilify the Merchants for their transgressions (which would have made dealing with them a much simpler and seemingly concise matter, as then he could have more easily and swiftly dealt with them out-of-hand), still, he couldn’t deny Doc’s words, though he found the implications disturbing. With his own eyes he had seen perfectly decent, moral young Elves, grow up to become brutal thugs; a fate he could well understand. For in his youth, had he not struggled with those self-same ugly moral dilemmas, being himself forced to make difficult and sometimes bitter, irrevocable, and unwholesome choices along the way? It seemed that the external pressures on people’s lives often led them down paths which under normal circumstances they would not have taken, had they been left to their own devices; nor in their youth would they have credited such an outcome for themselves, that, through being forcefully subjected to making unreasonable and evil choices, which were foisted upon them by the unscrupulous and the manipulative, they would one day allow themselves to be beaten down and become timid bystanders; or if stronger, cultivate a detached and sophistic passivity; or if somewhat naturally blithe of scruple, often abandon all compassion and turn into monsters.
The parting of families was grievous to behold, and few who watched the agony of children and parents being separated from one another could do so without pity, and despite everything, even with some sense of guilt; for the children, now victimized by their parent’s activities, had themselves done no wrong.