A defence of love of the beautiful boy

As you know, Aleksandr Ulyanov was executed for attempting to assassinate the Tsar. I am not a believer in the death penalty, but all the states of Europe at the time had the death penalty and it would have been remarkable indeed if he'd been let off for attempting to kill the monarch. This is quite different from the circumstances of the killing of Alexei. Alexei had done nothing to deserve the death penalty. If we start viewing human beings as collateral damage then I feel that we'll end up justifying every atrocity under the sun. We need to retain some faint hold on our humanity. Otherwise, all violence is justified, and we become Netanyahu. The beauty of Alexei the boy is part of the appeal of the figure and becomes fused in my mind with the tragedy of his brief life and his violent end. I cannot help but respond to boyish beauty. For what it's worth, I feel sorry for his sisters as well, and I have no attraction to them whatever.