Punishments
Crimes and Punishments: In the 21st Century: Chapter 3 (7 of 50)
From tribes to villages, towns, cities, counties, states, nations, unions and beyond, laws are how we have attempted to codify the societal bond between the citizens of a collective society. With speech evolving to symbols and then texts, the formalization of social order has continued. An accepted ideology has taken hold which assumes that liberty and security are inversely correlated. Though it is rational to conclude that some measure of freedom must be forsaken for security within a community, I caution against holding this presumption dear. While liberty is prized and promoted, the human being is not well suited to be independent of societal structure. A person without others is like a dolphin without water. Therefore, the pursuit of a balance between liberty and security continues forever, as the environmental conditions continuously change the center of gravity.
One environmental condition which humans seek to avoid is any which threatens the ability to procreate. Violence is a threat to one’s safety, providing it with an elevated sense of a need to be averted. The physical body is essential to reproduction. This fear is applied and assumed to be a deterrent because it is scary, not for its efficacy. With no reason to believe malicious intent, the accepted ideology has been that to keep the societal bond strong; punishments are required to maintain order. The premise is that without the threat of superior force, people cannot be held from barbarism. A belief that the population is one step away from vicious brutality does not align with history or rational thought. A profound neglect of rational thought assures that the future will look upon this period of punishment as a dark age, as an era of oppressive government and staggering ignorance. The reliance on punishment is a tragic forsaking of liberty at the cost of an undeserved and facetious sense of security.
The actions which make us feel safer can have outcomes which make us less secure. A fear of the “other” distances us from the inherent repulsion of violence. We even distance ourselves from our worst moments. The claim of our “barbaric nature” is an example of generic othering that avoids liability by justifying our violence in some necessary evil to avert this enormous catastrophe of the natural state of “man.”
Common statements such as; “there must have been a reason they were suspected,” and; “they must have been crazy to do that,” sets the stage to depend on laws at all costs for if not for the rules, chaos would ensue. Instead, the barbarism results when dehumanizing people by using cages and pain compliance to house them as less than animals, as super predators, vermin, and savages. Teenagers and the innocent are executed by the state, millions of children are placed in confinement, and slavery is legalized, in a supposed effort to not be savages. We are all the products of an evolutionary process dependent upon the minimization of violence. Between fight or flight, flight is the preferred response to species survival.
Flight and othering keep us from knowing the unknown and attaches the unfamiliar to a threat response. So long as the foreign things are kept away, then an illusion of safety is felt, even while more danger exists within those things which are familiar. Be it from the conditions of our social constructs, an unfortunate side effect of evolution, or a combination, the violence within our group is abhorred but it is far preferable than the unknown. Better the demon you know than the one you do not. Ultimately, the only “other” is the accumulation of power within our government and resource allocation. Categorizers such as race, class, religion, gender, nationality, are all elements of social construction which positions of power have used as tools to maintain and grow political influence.
The influence of power creates a structure that erodes communities by creating the conditions of oppression. It is not poverty and struggle that are correlated to violations of the social order; it is inequality. Wealth inequality that flaunts extravagance in the face of hardship shall be subject to law, not the poverty which results from exploitation. Peacefully poor communities are too plentiful to list, and our people unite together in mutual struggles. This instinct to join is so powerful that we are fooled into harming the societal fabric by condoning the infliction of violence on our fellow humans if we make them unfamiliar. With an understanding of this tendency, we can use it to our advantage.
Education is a frequent response to the issues which impede human progress, but it is an incomplete perspective. Whether the learner or the teacher, participating in the process of education is an experience intended to improve. The only long-lasting method for behavior modification is better experiences. The mission of a loving parent is in seeking those experiences for their child. We all know this fact on some level. To tie in the concept of punishment in society, look at it as a poor choice of words for the disincentives against breaking the societal bond and laws. Being that the societal contract is a two-way street, violations include the societal responsibility to provide needed experiences. It is not that government is to be a parent figure or even big brother, just that it takes a village.
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Michael Wood Jr. is a police management scholar who after spending a career in the USMC and Baltimore Police Department, took to dismantling the blue wall of silence and creating the pathway to reform; a model called Civilian-Led Policing. His fight for justice has included leading the historic Veterans for Standing Rock action in December of 2016, listening to the front lines of Black Lives Matter, opposing money in politics, and elevating the voices of others. You can find Michael in hundreds of media appearances, from HBO’s Fixing the System documentary with President Obama, to The Joe Rogan Experience, to published opinion pieces in The Guardian and Baltimore Sun, and everything in-between, where he furthers the discussion on criminal justice systems and institutions, and the needs of society.
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