Actually I'm not flippant - Edit 1
Before modification by guttering flame at 15/12/2010 06:02:25 AM
Replicating your scars on the next generation is actually a lot more common than you might think. Why should those new young uppity Aes Sedai get to live twice as long as you and not suffer from a painful facelift when you do? They should suffer as much as you if they want to be like you. Examples from RL abound.
Are you being serious or is this just a flippant post? I'm sorry I can't tell just by reading text on a screen in this case. I really lean towards flippant...
Practically every questionable tradition works in this manner. They're often justified in some manner but those justifications tend to ring hollow.
To take just one example, look at humiliating and often illegal initiating ceremonies in military units where beatings, scarring and semi-rapish scenarios are enacted on the initiates by the senior members. These stories crop up again and again. They're not isolated incidents. Would you be shocked how often these things have to be broken from the outside with only one or two members of the hundreds that experienced it willing to complain and break the silence (or condemn it) at first?
This story is as old as dirt.