Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
Perhaps the real original sin of humanity is the concept of sin itself. There is of course evil in the world and there is good. To me there is little equivocation about some evils and I am hardly a moral relativist. Although these terms become subjective when viewed from the perspective of an individual, there is a wide general acceptance among diverse cultures as to general definitions. We consider murder in all cultures evil, as is robbery, assault, rape, and a host of familiar others. For at least five thousand years, cultures established legal systems to deal with bad behavior and with those systems came the need for punishment. The history of punishment has always been rather draconian and bloody throughout history. While today punishment is perhaps more humane in many places, it still caries with it significant cruelty in its application throughout humanity.
“A woman and her three children had just gotten off the bus at a stop across from their apartment building (in Marietta, Georgia) in October 2010 when her 4-year-old son, A.J., broke away from her and ran into the street. A car struck the boy, causing fatal injuries. Nelson (the woman) and one of her two daughters also suffered minor injuries. Nelson was charged with three misdemeanors: second-degree vehicular homicide, failing to cross at a cross walk and reckless conduct, according to court records. A jury convicted her this month. Although prosecutors did not recommend jail time, each count carried a potential sentence of one year in jail”. What is behind this prosecution? Who among us who has raised young children wouldn’t be chilled with the vision of this happening to them? Why do we see such prosecutorial zeal in our society to find someone to punish when accidents occur?
The other salient aspect of this case is: “The man driving the car, Jerry Guy, fled the scene after the accident but later admitted being involved, according to CNN affiliate WXIA-TV. He was sentenced to five years in prison but served only six months. He is serving the remainder of the sentence on probation.” This is the full story from CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/07/26/georgia.mother.sentencing/
My proposition is that the increase in fundamentalist religious thought in the world and the influence it has had on us as a society, has led to a rash of unneeded prosecutions, motivated by the need to find an answer to each tragedy that comes to the public’s attention. The disconnect is that while our legal system and Constitution do not talk of sin as an offense against society, those believers in the concept of sin have the belief that we are punishing people for their sins and not for breaking the law. So deep is their dedication to fighting sin, that they believe our legal system is the proper venue to deal with it. In Christianity and Islam especially sin is to be punished by God/Allah’s judgment at the point of an individual’s death. Nevertheless, there is the idea that society should also punish sin, pre-Deity so to speak and in effect revenge itself on those miscreants who violate God’s Law. Judaism doesn’t talk of sin per se, but the harsh judgments prescribed in the Torah for various acts of breaking the 613 Commandments, may as well be the same as terming them sin by popular understanding.
When a society begins to judge criminality based on the notion of punishing sin, the roster of things to be punished is an ever-expanding one. With this goes the notion that society must avenge itself on those who commit sins and that punishment should be harsh. In this mindset, the law is meant to avenge wrongs and provide punishment as revenge. Not only is this notion inimical to our American legal system and Constitution, it is a foolish one that perverts our system and undermines our laws.
The tremendous increase in our prison rosters are due to what are essentially victimless crimes dealing with addiction. Hundreds of million$ are spent to dissuade drug abuse and after you parse the message past the personal harm to the individual, the message is clearly that “getting high” is sinful. If we took the sin out of judging and dealing with the effects of drug addiction, perhaps we might even reduce it, or at least cut the cost in money and human lives it now represents.
Drugs are just one aspect of the problem of viewing our legal system as existing to punish sin and enforce religious based morality. Sin bespeaks the need of society to avenge proscribed behavior.
A rational legal system is not about revenge as punishment, but should be about protecting the citizenry from predation and maintaining a safe environment. As such, our law should be dispassionate about meting out justice and compassionate in its application.
The human mind strives to make sense of the randomness of tragedy, seeking reasons for why they occur and trying to pin blame for the devastation on someone, or something. We know intellectually that “stuff happens” but we find it hard to accept that sometimes there is just no reason for bad things to occur. If one is a Religious Fundamentalist, believing an omniscient God controls everything, since God is good it must be Satan controlling the supposed perpetrator. Therefore, when bad accidents occur to innocent, little children, someone has to assume blame. In this case, an overburdened mother, coming off from a bus and a four-year old behaving as four-year olds do and pulling away.
We can imagine the indignant feeling of a judgmental public wanting her called to account and the avenging feelings of LEO’s and Prosecutors disdainful of her carelessness. This is what I call the “Avenging Mind”. This mindset believes that people deserve harsh punishment for their transgression, not as reformation, but simply for the satisfaction of revenge. It is an angry, narrow-minded mindset, which internally treats itself with undue harshness and guilt. From a Fundamentalist perspective, we are all sinners, some restrained only by their certainty of punishment in the afterlife. God’s wrath though is not enough for them, because they will never see the punishment to occur. They need the
vicarious thrill of seeing it happen. Isn’t this the reason people were fighting to get into Casey Anthony’s trial and that the television ratings for the verdict were astronomical? It was a need to see her face as the verdict was delivered and the punishment pronounced. The hope for the almost sadistic satisfaction that tears or a pained expression on her face would give them. This isn’t about her guilt or innocence, it is about the fact that some world take satisfaction in revenge. There are millions of children, living and dying in this world in horrible circumstances, yet we avoid that macrocosm with its attendant crying out to our emotions and focus on the death of one in millions.
This woman faced with the devastating loss of her child and the overwhelming guilty feelings accompanying it, was made to stand trial for vehicular homicide. She was convicted, but in a seeming show of mercy sentenced to no jail time. She never should have been tried on that charge in the first place, or put through the torture of a trial, to make sure that revenge was provided for the human mistake of an instant. The only crime we have here is the Driver’s, for his fleeing the scene. He was treated more humanely for his crime, while a grieving mother who will never forgive herself, was forced to undergo public humiliation and trial.
How do we educate the part of the public so inundated with the notion of sin and retribution, that revenge is not the purpose of the law? In theory, our legal system exists as an extension of our Constitution to safeguard us all and to protect our society from those who would willingly do harm to others. Somehow, it has gotten all confused with God’s wrath and that is to our detriment.
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
Mespo, when in the eighth grade she ambushed the guidance counselor when he asked her what track she wanted to be in. She told him that she intended to get a combined Ph.D., J.D. in forensic science and law. First he told her there was no such program available, but she corrected him and named three or four programs. Then he asked her where she came up with wanting to do that. She told him, “From my PawPaw.”
Blouise:
True enough, and he was a misanthrope, but I do like this little Schopenhauer observation:
“The wise have always said the same things, and fools, who are the majority have always done just the opposite.”
mespo,
I don’t know, I always considered myself to be “un-German to the point of genius” 🙂 (you know the cite) … though to tell the truth, I had a bit of trouble with Schopenhauer …
I see a future philosopher!
Mespo, she has indeed. Also has read all Eric Hoffer’s books.
OS:
I told you that kid was smart and got it honestly.
She’s probably ready for Human, All Too Human by now. A little brooding but the aphorisms are great. Here’s a favorite:
“He who has come only in part to a freedom of reason cannot feel on earth otherwise than as a wanderer.”
Mespo, a few years ago I was in Barnes & Noble with my (then) 15 y/o granddaughter. She asked if I minded buying her a book. I told her ‘of course not,’ that she could have any book she wanted. She asked, shyly, “Have you heard of a writer named Friedrich Nietzsche?”
She wanted me to buy Beyond Good and Evil for her. Two weeks later she came to me wanting another of his books. The kid is a sponge, remembering everything she reads, hears or sees. I am sure that most fifteen-year-old girls have an interest in reading such literature when it is not assigned in school. Heh!
Blouise:
“May I add that we are also a nation bent on punishing entire populations of other countries for having a political leadership which we deem and openly call, evil.”
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Positively Nietzscheian!
He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
~Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil,
And then, of course, there this little pearl of wisdom standing in stark contrast to the problem Mike S eloquently describes:
What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.
~Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
If a person hasn’t read Beyond Good and Evil, I ‘m not sure their education is complete.
Gene,
I found Mike’s post most thought provoking as he began with all his points in a tight circle around this prosecution/conviction at center-stage under a single spot light then slowly lit the rest of the stage directing our attention to each contributing player until the entire set was illuminated.
It was a masterful presentation and I am in complete agreement with his suggestion: “So deep is their dedication to fighting sin, that they believe our legal system is the proper venue to deal with it.”
I simply shoved another player from the wings onto his set, for just as we seek revenge by punishing our own citizens, we do the same to those who are not ours.
If one considers the post on mythology as Act I and this post as Act II, let’s hope there is a third act to come.
“That being said, this does not change that some countries do have evil people in leadership positions”(Gene H) Considering the actions of our own leaders from the slave-holders of yesterday to the torture experts of today, we have always been and continue to be very good at finding the mote in others’ eyes while ignoring the beam in our own. Christian mythology at its best.
OS,
I’ll accept the stipulation of “abuse” without reservation.
Gene, you wrote: “A truly stunning story of personal loss contrasted with a lack of prosecutorial discretion.”
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Not to nitpick, but I think you meant ‘abuse’ rather than ‘lack.’
We find a lot of that going around. There was one incident a few years ago in which a couple of nitwits drag racing in the early morning hours killed a high school girl. The local DA tried to charge them with capital murder. The jury was smarter than that and convicted them of manslaughter. The DA was voted out of office, at least partly due to his habit of grossly overcharging defendants in an effort to extort a plea and to make political points. It backfired on him come election day.
This article is both thoughtful and thought provoking. Thank you for writing it.
Moving to a city near you soon….
Gah! Oh Mike….
A jury convicted her but who brought the indictment? How did this case ever get to trial in the first place?
“We can imagine the indignant feeling of a judgmental public wanting her called to account..”
Citation-needed.jpg
I haven’t seen anyone suggesting she needs to be called to account apart from the prosecutor. If you have seen this in anything but your rummy imagination, please cite it.
Your theory is not that this prosecutor is typical of many prosecutors that engage in prosecutorial overreach because that is how the system is set up, from:
1) It’s an adversarial system
2) They get re-elected, re-appointed for being tough on crime
And your theory is it’s not:
1) racism
2) classism
Your theory for which you provide NO evidence only your tale of woe is that it’s because of religious fundamentalism.
And you pat yourself on the back as a member of the reality based party, self-assured in your compassion and tolerance.
Between you and rafflaw, there’s not enough common sense to fill a thimble, but enough smug and hotair to refloat Titanic.
Your post fails Occam’s razor. All that is needed to explain what happened is the way incentives are set up for prosecutors. Reward for being tough on crime, no feedback for convicting the innocent until you’re a Nifong.
There is no need to bring religion into this, except of course, you have a tiny little axe that needs grinding.
Mike S,
“Perhaps the real original sin of humanity is the concept of sin itself. There is of course evil in the world and there is good.”
Well, three concepts, good, evil, and sin.
Undefined.
In general there must be a comprehensive elaboration on the origin of an essence before there can be a comprehensive dissertation on it, especially in the context of calling it a crime and then punishing that crime.
So what about the origin of good, evil, and sin?
We have an abundance of punishment for good (“no good deed goes unpunished”), evil (“the devil made me do it”), and sin (“Las Vegas – Sin City”), but they are all so McDonald.
The thin veneer of it all is so tiring sometimes.
Mike S.,
A truly stunning story of personal loss contrasted with a lack of prosecutorial discretion.
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Blouise,
That being said, this does not change that some countries do have evil people in leadership positions. It is our collective overwhelming feelings of American exceptionalism and hubris that blinds us to seeing it in our own leadership as well as that of others. Any pretense of righteousness goes out the window when one is not willing to clean one’s own house first. The example that comes to mind is failing to prosecute domestic war criminals.
Blouise,
Amen!
May I add that we are also a nation bent on punishing entire populations of other countries for having a political leadership which we deem and openly call, evil.
Mike S:
This one is as good as it gets. Sad but profound. Reminds me of Shirley Jackson’s premise in that haunting short story, “The Lottery,” about the need for blood atonement. Shades of it too in M. Night Shyamalan’s movie, “The Village.”
Great article, but a Sad case Mike. The religious aspect of the system is just part of it. Don’t forget the for-profit prisons need to be refilled. Between the War on Drugs and the Religious right and the profit motive, maybe it is more than just revenge, but you are right that the revenge factor is the basis for this kind of action.