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RealityVsUnreality 7 - 19 Feb 2009 - Main.JamilaMcCoy
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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. | | | 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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> | Aaron,
On your first point, I think there will be "free riders" but if society made the choice to allocate it's resources differently, maybe it wouldn't be such a problem. Think of our astronomical defense and prison budgets. I think that "free riders" are the least of the problems. Think of the costs of ignoring those in need: the un-nurtured talent and crimes of desperation and circumstance. I don't have anything empirical to back me up on this claim, but how much have we gained from our wars and by incarcerating our citizens? How much have we lost by allowing poverty to persist over generations? I don't think we've been allocating our eggs to the right baskets.
On your second point, sometimes roses do grow from concrete, all too often society kills them before they have a chance to grow, but I'm glad you do acknowledge that they can break the cycles of poverty. I think it’s good to strike a balance between acknowledging the circumstances that lead to undesirable behaviors but also to avoid throwing pity parties that are detrimental to an empowered mindset.
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