(no subject)

[sophiaserpentia]

In regards to statements several of you have made regarding the death penalty, whether or not the inflicting of pain during execution is cruel, and so on, I came to a few conclusions today.

I have never seen anyone around me brutalized in a capital offense. It may change my views. But I can still understand to an extent the anger that sinpar expressed in her response to my post yesterday about the death penalty. That kind of revulsion and fury is the natural and appropriate emotional response to brutality.

I also have in mind alobar's comments to the effect that society is best served by simply and quickly executing its psychopaths to remove the burden they impose on all of us. I agree that society does not deserve to be burdened with the care and uptake of unredeemable, unrepentant violent psychopaths. There is no reasoning with or rehabilitating such people because they lack certain crucial circuits in the brain that make it possible for them to feel remorse or understand right vs. wrong.

However, even in spite of all of the above, I am now resolved firmly in opposition to the death penalty.

Why? It occurred to me today that the fact that someone may have lost the right to live does not logically or necessarily imply in itself that we as a society should, or deserve to, take his or her life.

It is written that he who lives by the sword dies by the sword. This simple maxim reflects the way things are. But this fails to take into account the notion that we may be better off, collectively speaking, by seeking to transcend some aspects of the cosmic order which we inherit.

That last statement represents a shift in my way of thinking, the implications of which will ripple out over the next few months.

Human nature is a product of evolution. Evolution is not something which, to date, we have had any choice in. But now as sentient beings we have the power to affect the course of our evolution. I don't just mean this in terms of genetics or neurology or endocrinology, although those are aspects of the changes to come.

This is an important opportunity which humanity must not squander.

In my opinion, the best, and perhaps the only valid, guiding principle for directing the ways in which we evolve consiously, is compassion. By that I don't mean and have never meant that we should feel "warm fuzzies" for everyone around us. By that I mean an abiding respect for and awareness of the depth of sacredness that exists within every human individual.

It is not for the sake, so much, of the condemned that I have chosen to oppose the death penalty. It is for the sake of the rest of us. An ancient sage would say we increase our karma collectively by executing a criminal. In light of what I have written above, I would concur, though I don't see karma per se as a supernatural matter. In taking the life of a criminal, we affirm the violence by which he lived his life in a powerful way. It signals a confirmation of the brutal mechanisms by which we evolved. It gives the wheel of violence another turn instead of ending the cycle.

Comments

[adroanzi.livejournal.com]

You said what was in my mind when I took that survey. But of course you said it much better ^_~

[alobar.livejournal.com]

The death penalty as it is practiced is unfair, so the choice seems to me to suspend it or make it fair. I am far more prone to making it fair, although I freely admit that would be the more difficult of the two tasks.

There are many "treatments" which, in fact, maim or kill. Doctors know this. So do the drug companies which manufacture the toxins. Many oncologists say if they got cancer they would not take the standard chemo &/or radiation &/or surgery. Yet, these same oncologists get rich by doing exactly the things they say they would not have done to them. To me, that is mass murder in the first degree. I say execute a thousand or two of them, and I'll bet the docs & drug companies start changing their tune.

Shrub's friends who engage in war profiteering. Most of Congress & the Executive branch are all war criminals. If they all get executed, maybe we will be starting down the road to fairness.

It is my strong feeling & opinion that society cannot afford to shelter the mass murders amongst the wealthy while scapegoating the murderers from the lower classes -- whether one kills them all or just puts them all in pens for the rest of their natural days.

In my mind, it is far more humane to kill them than to treat them to life in prison. Being a slave is not a natural state -- whether one is treated poorly or well. It is my contention that it would be far better to release the souls from twisted lives than pen them up for decades. It is also much cheaper. So long as there is a choice between helping out someone who is growing *or* keeping a killer alive while letting the struggling person starve, I choose to help the struggling person. Even if resources are infinite, there is still the question of whether the souls of people imprisoned for decades are better off than those killed swiftly.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

It is my strong feeling & opinion that society cannot afford to shelter the mass murders amongst the wealthy while scapegoating the murderers from the lower classes -- whether one kills them all or just puts them all in pens for the rest of their natural days.

You make an excellent point: those who do these things in the name of "service to society" on the whole do far more damage than the average psychopath could in his wildest dreams.

Obviously the best answer is to prevent such people from getting into public office in the first place, rather than punishing them afterwards for abusing authority. Sometimes I think we should automatically disqualify for public office anyone crazy and/or power-hungry enough to actually seek the job.

I never considered your point about execution as the most compassionate handling. I don't have an answer for that right now, except to point out that the farthest thing from most people's minds when they talk of execution is carrying it out compassionately. Most people think of it as a form of vengeance or retribution, and contemplate the action in anger or hatred. *IF* society moved to a place where the act was carried out primarily for the reason you raise, perhaps I would have to rethink my position.

[hai-kah-uhk.livejournal.com]

Mm. I'm with you.