What is it about the sin of treachery that keeps it so very despised?

These days, every other vice and transgression seems to be glorified by artists--rappers singing the praises of being gangsters, hardcore teenie-alternative groups singing about the joys of suicide or patricide or a plethora of other cides, religious and political blasphemy gracing forums from art to music to literature to film...and yet, no one has espoused treachery?

no tales ever celebrate turncoats. Benedict Arnold remains still one of the most reviled figures of American history, even beyond Hitler as Neo-Nazis and Neo-Fascists become apologists for the deceased, diabolical megalomaniac. Those gangster lyrics ring out in favor of wasting those homies who talk too much. Is pimping so much more socially acceptible than selling secrets to the other side? Wasn't it E.M. Forester who said: "I hope that, when given the choice between betraying my friend and betraying my country, I should have the courage to betray my country"? So those hoes, who presumably at one time or another could have and were led to believe that they were their john's "friend" (sexually or otherwise) have been betrayed in an act of the greatest treachery...yet pop culture would have one believe that pimping is indeed glamorous.

what makes treachery taboo? is it some remaining vestige of natural or social law, that the deprecation of one's society, by betraying its secrets to enemies, is in the end only detrimental to oneself? (does that make sense to anyone but me?) Is this the extent of honor among theives? The thinnest social network, the last recourse against being alone and helpless in a cruel and gigantic world? An I'll scratch your back you scratch mine, don't tell on me and i won't tell on you kind of pact? Why is the one person, who sees no merit to keeping others' secrets, so reviled?


This is not to say that i advocate treachery by any stretch of the imagination. As a member of a group of 5 siblings, where silence is currency and the keeping of secrets imperative to the continued health and happiness of all 5 of us, the idea of treachery is one stained the darkest black. nevertheless, i cannot help but wonder that, in a country rife with vices equally as detrimental to the society established within its borders, why is treason an offense still instantly punishable by death, and always death? We can forgive murderers, but we cannot forgive traitors. Why?