Honor is honesty to what is, not blind duty to what you wish to be.

...the first law of reason is that what exists, exists; what is, is, and that from this irreducible, bedrock principle, all knowledge is built. He said that was the foundation from which life is embraced.

Good.  Pity for the guilty is treason to the innocent.

Mercy is a contingency plan devised by the guilty in the eventuality that they are caught.  Justice is the domain of the just.  This is about justice.

Like hounds at a feast, people gather round the table of tyranny, eager for tasty scraps tossed on the floor.  Not everyone will wag their tail for a tyrant, but most will, if he first makes them salivate with hate and gives license to their covetous impulses by making them feel it is only their due.  Many would rather take than earn.  Tyrants make the envious comfortable with their greed.

Culture carries no privilege to exist.  Cultures do not have value simply because they are.  Some cultures, the world is better off without.