Law in Contemporary Society

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RealityVsUnreality 6 - 19 Feb 2009 - Main.AaronShepard
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When Prof. Moglen was discussing the wide chasm separating between what we know about the penal system and what really transpires behind prison doors, it occurred to me that this divergence between reality and unreality certainly isn't unqiue to the criminal "justice" system, and that the failure to bridge that gap often leads to a distorted understanding of human behavior in other contexts as well. In the case of the penal system, we witness some alarming absurdities: the father who thinks jail time will "shape up" his son, the politician who pads his resume with convictions, the prosecutor whose political ties pervert her duties as a public servant, and a community which thinks itself safer despite rising rates of incarceration and crime. These symptoms are no doubt worrisome, but I believe the same social forces operate in other cases as well.
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  • A right to decent housing is also completely undiscussable because it would be socialism.
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While I agree with much of what has been said, I think a little Devil's Advocate needs to be played.

1. If you give everyone free housing, how do you avoid free riders? I guess that is sort of the curse of socialism, despite all of its theoretical advantages.

2. As someone pointed out, we do have choices; there are people who rise 'above' their environments. Clearly the point made here is that you may have a much tougher start if you start with an abusive family life, and that is something that certainly is not as widely acknowledge as it should be.

I have to say those this is an interesting thread. My friend teaches in the Bronx (as I mentioned in another thread), and her kids truly have awful stories to tell about their home lives. Clearly they have some sort of choice about where they end up, but really, how much?

-- AaronShepard - 19 Feb 2009

 
 
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Revision 6r6 - 19 Feb 2009 - 03:15:00 - AaronShepard
Revision 5r5 - 18 Feb 2009 - 20:46:36 - EbenMoglen
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