Saturday, August 02, 2008

Punishment Culture

Punishment enthusiasm seems ubiquitous.

Right-wing socialists get excited to hear about executions, brutal police action (like the illegitimate "War on Drugs"), wars of retribution, and bad guys "getting theirs".

Left wing socialists salivate over big business getting fined for profiting "too much", over gun owners being arrested and demonized, over the racists they don't like being put in their place.

Even I have a difficult time not enjoying seeing socialists suffering the consequences of the world they have created for all of us.

"Punishment" is not the same as stopping an attack. If you see an innocent person being attacked and you jump in and kill the attacker, that is not "enjoying punishment", but is "ending a threat". Human predators deserve to be neutralized when caught in the act.

In some cases, punishment is appropriate (added: I no longer believe this). In many other cases, it is just revenge. It may even be directed against the wrong person unless the guilty person is caught in the act and stopped immediately.


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2 comments:

  1. What about trying to have American war criminals tried by an international court?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Courts rarely dispense real justice. Maybe I am just jaded, but I would never trust any court to do the right thing.

    ReplyDelete