thoughts on punishment
you know, i get the reason it exists, but i really do hate the idea of punishment
there's just something about someone extensively harming others in a way that is deemed "acceptable" that just makes me very uncomfortable
part of it is just raw empathy for anything that can feel, yes–but i'm also convinced that it's applied much more than it's actually needed (as opposed to more peeps addressing underlying issues with ignorant people and the environments that shaped them)
thoughts on punishment
the main reason i mentioned "ignorance" is because i feel like a lot of consequences are justified by the assumption that people are the way they are, and that they "100% know what they are doing"
and the problem is that, well, *a lot of people do know what they are doing*...but a lot of people are the way they are because they got unlucky with the context that surrounds them
i don't think we try to differentiate these two things nearly enough
thoughts on punishment
apply this to the concept of punishment, and suddenly it starts to look a lot different
suddenly, it becomes a game of chance whether or not you are going to end up in a situation where society as a whole has decided that you *must* be harmed
a lottery of pain
this makes circumstance an even larger agent of chaos than it already is, and i don't think that's a good thing--it's yet another way for the world to become more pointlessly cruel to the unprivileged
thoughts on punishment
i wonder how many people could be reformed if we put more energy into trying to do that, instead of considering ignorance to be a good enough justification to scar people for life
and, would people who were wronged even want that? or would the lack of retaliation when possible be seen generally enough as robbing them of their justified schadenfreude?