Also, seems kind of scary that this implies a future where so many people are in prison that their vote could actually tip the balance ?
Also, seems kind of scary that this implies a future where so many people are in prison that their vote could actually tip the balance ?
It’s a recipe for creating monsters similar to how intervention in the middle east created those terrorists and their symbiotic relationship with the military industrial complex. That plan is so ridiculously evil and doomed to fail that I can’t help but think there’s some second order effect that they’re going for here.
The monsters aren’t the ones being created, the monsters are the ones creating those circumstances to begin with.
I know you didn’t mean anything by it, but that shift in focus is really important to point out, because those same people rely on you and me to see the poor people who’s lives they destroyed as the problem, instead of whose who really are.
I’ve meant some pretty monstrous people created by this system. I’ve met lots of people who’s risk reward system has been almost completely rewired so that they find the most enjoyment in making other people suffer. And this isn’t just my psychiatric inpatients, sometimes it’s some of the staff members, and sometimes when those staff members know they can’t get away with doing it to the patients they do it to newer and more junior staff members. And they justify it in all kinds of fucked up ways (in particular expecting unreasonable and honestly humiliating measures of “respect” but never returning even a shred of true respect). The whole thing is just fear and pain all the way down.
None of that changes the fact that it is the system that creates that kind of behaviour by encouraging and rewarding selfishness, greed, hate, and doing whatever it takes to “succeed”.
I’m not denying that there are horrible people out there (I’ve been victim to a few personally), or that they shouldn’t be held responsible for individual actions if they harm others (they should), but in almost all cases you can’t blame them for turning out that way (again, not excusing any harm they go on to cause to others) when you look at the circumstances they need to exist in. Circumstances designed by a handful of people reaping unfathomable benefits.
So I’d much sooner point my finger at those who are actually to blame, instead of at those who are the fucked up products of their system, because one of those not only creates infinitely more damage than the other, but also it’s only that same group that have the power to do anything to stop it.
Begs the question of if the Stanford prison experiment ever really ended.