We are a vindictive species. We build celebrities up to tear them down. We wallow in the disgrace of unpopular politicians and revel in the failure of the popular ones. We like to know we are not the only average smucks...if you stick your neck out you'll end up with egg on your face.
So here's a thought...what's up with the penal system? In a short discussion on suitable punishment for violent crime that I was involved in (in order to get juiciness to write on this, of course) one participant suggested that "rotting in jail is a much better sentence than ending someone's life. Can't do much reflection or suffering in death." Yet I can remember (not clearly, as I was young and more interested in NKOTB than in opinions on capital punishment) hearing something that stuck with me, namely, that "we put down mad dogs, right? Should mad humans be different?"What is the point of the judicial system, anyway?
I don't trust the current judicial system enough to commit to capital punishment, but I will defend vehemently anyone who kills in self-defense or the defense of another. I would quite happily break Mr. Pickton's neck for him if he'd just step this way, because I am sure, I am sure, that he did what he's been convicted of. I don't believe in ending someone's life just because they've commited a capital crime. Rather, I think it's important to remove dangers from society so that society can thrive. And some people are just going to be dangerous until they are no more. I also don't believe that the penitentiary should be used to make someone suffer for their crime or give them time to reflect on the consequences of their actions. The only way one person can be absolved of the guilt of what they've done, in my mind, is to repent of it and make restitution with the victim...if not the victim then to society as a whole. Jail is an outward sign of paying that restitution and it's a time to learn that the repentence is needed, not through reflection but through understanding the point of society--why you hurt yourself by hurting others. Pain and suffering is not the goal, I hope, I think...but we are a vindictive species, like I said.
We are so vindictive, and so selfish and self-involved and greedy and cowardly that we have jails, and tough on crime legislation, and bickering over the necessary punishments because we need to prove to ourselves that crime doesn't pay. That the only reason we go to work, or school, and listen to teachers and bosses tell us what to do, is because it's the only smart way to get ahead. If we commit crimes we'll be stuck in little rooms of boredom and pain. We're smart for not pushing the envelope, we're smart for playing it safe. Just like we build up people to tear them down, we revel in the misfortune of others that might have taken a misstep because it's reinforcement that we've done right by never straying from the acceptable path.
I'm not anarchistic because I think I won't get my fair share, I'm not a hedonist because I'm too dumb to know better. I am who I am because there is nothing to be afraid of in living by what you know, deep down, is right. And the only way I can know what's right is by knowing the point of it all. And the point is this : we're each of us here to make sure that the species survives and we get and give no more chance than and to any other. But that's it. I don't commit capital crimes because that deprives someone else of the chance, but I certainly don't need to stare morbidly at crime statistics to reassure myself that I'm doing the right thing. And I don't need to rant endlessly about the wrongness of how or if we kill each other...because we'll keep doing it.
But I won't.
Unless it's Robert Pickton.
"Two roads diverged in a wood and I//I took the one less travelled by" -- Robert Frost
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