Re: [MEDIA] Chicago Suntime's death penalty poll

From: Michael Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Date: Wed Dec 02 1998 - 12:16:32 MST


Paul Hughes wrote:

> "Joe E. Dees" wrote:
>
> > > Proof that 87% of the population are still operating primarily on
> > > reptilian emotional-territorial circuitry. Am I supposed to be
> > > surprised?
> > >
> > > Paul Hughes
> > >
> >
> > Not only that, but I would vote for a provisio that mandates that
> > executions are performed in a manner that allows essential organs
> > to be harvested, and that such harvesting is required, so that the
> > murderers, unable to restore the lives they took, may at least
> > partially pay in kind by sustaining the lives of others. Joe
>
> So, you're so proud of your reptilian brain that you want to make a profit
> from it's use?
>
> Please examine China's policy of executing prisoners before recommending
> this idea again. It pains me to see people on this list spouting opinions
> with no bearing on their outcome.
>
> I'll re-quote Mike Lorrey on this topic:
>
> "Putting a profit motive before the state would cause the state to seek to
> expand the penalty to more and more crimes. Even, and especially, in a
> popular
> democracy, with an aging population, there will be public pressure to expand
> the
> penalty to more and more crimes."
>
> BTW, for those who seemed to have forgotten what extropy means, here is a
> definition from Max More's original Lextropicon:
>
> EXTROPY: A measure of intelligence, information, energy, life, experience,
> diversity, opportunity, and growth. The collection of forces which oppose
> entropy.
>
> Now, are you someone who claims to be an extropic individual while
> simultaneously advocating that a centralized state kill people for money?
>

While I oppose state organized death penalties as operated today because they
are an ineffective deterrent against crime, and I oppose harvesting organs from
criminals for profit to 'pay' for their crimes because such policies tend to
lead toward greater tyranny, I still say it is extropic to kill an entropic
individual, especially when that entropic individual preys on extropic
individuals.

Mike Lorrey



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