No Spill Blood

"No Spill Blood" is the third track on the album Good For Your Soul by Oingo Boingo about the law of the Beast-folk.

Lyrics/ Version

 * Demo
 * Live
 * 1985-01
 * 1984-05-21 Reseda California
 * 1985-04-27 The Palace
 * 1985-04-30 The Palace: Youtube_1, Youtube_2
 * 1987-10-30 Irvine Meadows
 * 1990-10-25 Irvine Meadows: Youtube_1, Youtube_2
 * 1993-01-16 Universal Ampitheatre
 * 1993-10-21 Irvine Meadows: Youtube_1, Youtube_2
 * 1994-10 Universal Ampitheatre
 * 2016-10-28 The Rose
 * 2016-10-29 The Couch House
 * 2021-10-08
 * Covers: TheTerrorBeyond, Bass, Slowed&Reverb
 * Dead Man's Party: 2017-07-22, 2019-10-26
 * Fan Videos: Island of Dr. Moreau 1977, Beastars, In Progress Multi-Animator-Project (Part 10-11)

Themes

 * "All crimes are equal": Not spilling blood and walking on four legs may be equivocated. This may make people more hesitant to walk on four legs but as a double edged sword, could make people take actual bloodshed less seriously.
 * Animal Farm: Comparisons with the song and Orwell's Animal Farm have been made. "No spill blood" parallels "No animal shall kill any other animal" which had "without cause" added to it later to excuse the Pig's use of capital punishment. The house of pain could be the knackerman's van. The legs law is the "Two legs good. Four legs bad." which changed from "Four legs good. Two legs bad."
 * Apostasy/ One way door: The animals wanting to walk on two legs may only have wanted to do it occassionally but they are put in a position where following the ways once means they have to follow the law forever.
 * Appropriating morality: The narrator says seemingly obvious morals, like not to shed innocent blood and acts like it makes than a figurehead for more gray areas and making unnecessary rules, calling it "set in stone" as if equivalent to the more intuitive rules.
 * Detterence vs Rehabilitative/ Restorative Justice: Just as a painful justice process can deter someone from comitting evil in the first place, it can deter people from turning themselves in to learn from their mistakes or right their wrongs after the fact.
 * Eye for an eye: Vivisection which the House of Pain is used for, would spill blood itself and possibly more blood than someone may have spilt inthe first place. A "both eyes for one eye" system that would lead to an accelerating cycle of revenge.
 * Gatekeeping: The beast-folk want to walk on two legs but must do seemingly irrelevant things to earn the position and must do it all the time without relapse to avoid punishment and be true two-legged walkers.
 * Keeping up with Trends: The beast-folk have to keep up with the new trend which is currently walking on two legs.
 * Punitive Justice is Legalized Revenge:
 * War is peace/ Big Stick Policy/ Appeal to Force: The threat of more violence is used as disincentive against initial violence, but once initial violence starts, it could lead to an accelerating cycle of revenge.
 * Selfish subjectivity false equivalence with objectivity: One can declare an independant third party as objective. But you still need the "ought" statement of why one ought to follow their commands. And if the lawgiver is involved in their own law, that will bias them away from objectivity, so they're not a reletively objective bystander in the first place.
 * Someone else's Intellectual Labor: The beast-folk can just learn what the lawgiver person thinks rather than taking the longer route of knowing why they think that way. This heuristic can be exploited if too many people are using it and there aren't multiple people at all critizing eachother. The action of criticism is punished rather than the intellectual leader trying to explain more than than they were before.
 * Tolerance Paradox: To create a less barbaric society, society must be barbaric toward barbariansim. To walk on two legs, one must hurt the all-fours. It's a slippery slope to be cautious of.

Comparison to other versions
See The Law for more.


 * Unique: The animals voluntarily want to be men in the first place.
 * The First Moreau: The law is more self-regulated in this version and it's not actually "someon else". Montgomery is disturbed at their own prudishness.
 * The Island of Doctor Moreau (book)
 * (Chap. 12 pages 106, 107, 109, 112 para. 14, 18, 35, 56) "Not to [go/run] on all-fours; that is the Law. [Are we not men?]"
 * (Chap. 16 page 169)"Who breaks the Law " said Moreau, taking his eyes off his victim, and turning towards us (it seemed to me there was a touch of exultation in his voice). "Goes back to the House of Pain," they all clamoured," goes back to the House of Pain, O Master!" "Back to the House of Pain, back to the House of Pain," gabbled the Ape-man, as though the idea was sweet to him.
 * Island of Lost Souls (1932 film)
 * Moreau: What is the law? Sayer-of-the-law: Not to run on all-fours. That is the law. Are we not men? Beast-folk: Are we not men?… Moreau: What is the law. Sayer: Not to spill blood. That is the law. Are we not men? Beast-folk: Are we not men?
 * The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977 film)
 * Sayer-of-the-law: What is the law? Not to walk on all-fours. Are we not men? What is the law? Not to eat flesh. That is the law. Not to shed blood. That is the law. Moreau: What is the law. Sayer: Not to go on all-fours. That is the law. Moreau: What is the law. Sayer: Not to hunt other men. That- Moreau: Stop! The law has been broken. He who breaks the law shall be punished. Back to the House of Pain. Sayer: Back to the House of Pain!
 * Moreau: Repeat the Law. Not to hunt men. Sayer: Not to shed blood. That is the law. He who breaks the law must go to the House of Pain.