From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Tue Apr 18 2000 - 16:39:31 MDT
> I have a feeling that one day in the future, we will consider capitol
> punishment just as barbaric as foreign countries see us now, (Europe seems
> to look down on our electric chair) or as we now view the guillotine. I
> acknowledge that I have extreme viewpoints towards hypocritical punishment.
> Here's our government "we do not allow killing, it is wrong, so we will kill
> you". To me, (and I know not a lot will agree, here's where I throw in a
> disclaimer: people can use physical punishment towards their own children,
> that's their family, their business, and their choice, although I would
> chose not to") it is just as ironic as if I had a child (say Timmy), that
> was hitting the neighbor kid , 'little Cindy' from down the street, and I
> said "Timmy it's wrong to hit other's" and proceeded to hit him 'as
> punishment'. I know that not everyone will agree with this, but I think
> exact punishments, tend to escalate the action. If we kill murder's, does
> this prevent any further murders?
One problem is that a lot of people are unwilling to be honest (even
with themselves) about what they believe. They want to cling to the
silly idea that "violence is wrong", when they clearly believe that
precisely-applied contextually-appropriate violence is right and good.
When a burglar invades my home, I don't call the cops to come give
him a timeout--I call them to physically seize him and hold him for
trial, which is a means of calmly and rationally determining exactly
what form of further violence would be best to apply to protect people
from him.
I also understand that the cops, as an agency of the government, have
the right to do this because I and the other citizens have delegated
to them our own inherent right to use this violence in our defense,
and I am personally morally responsible for the violence done on my
behalf by these agents.
I do not support the death penalty, not because I think killing is
wrong--killing a human who threatens your life is a just exercise of
the human right to self defense, which is itself a consequence of the
basic right to life--but because I do not trust the agents to whom
this task is delegated to do it properly. I am not willing to take
responsibility for killings on my behalf done by an organization
that has proven itself incompetent to do so justly and fairly.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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