Truly fresh thinking
A 'public intellectual' type named Thane Rosenbaum was briefly interviewed on NFR yesterday. You'd think that a Thane Rosenbaum, with all the proper credentials for a New York 'public intellectual', would take the standard Commie line on everything. He would spew the same all-destroying all-consuming genocidal toxin as ACLU or Norman Lear or Jeffrey Toobin.

Nope. Not at all! Amazingly, he understands civilization and expresses his understanding in crystal-clear and thought-inviting ways. His main thesis:

Without the debt canceling, equalizing, restorative dimensions of revenge, faith in humankind is lost and the world makes less sense. That's precisely what people mean when they lament that there is "no justice in the world" — a wrongdoer has gotten away with murder, and all who depend, morally and emotionally, on the sum-certainty of vengeance are left helpless, dumbfounded, and enraged.

For much of human history, the resolution of disputes was a private matter. States were not yet in the business of maintaining legal systems or, for that matter, punishing wrongdoers for crimes committed against another. Law and order was enforced at the most local of levels. Governments became involved — essentially taking a monopoly on vengeance — only during the Enlightenment, when the social contract obligated citizens to surrender to, and faithfully accept, the rule of law.

But regardless of who becomes the designated revenge-taker — either the state, with its impersonal security apparatus, or the avenger, who is discharging his personal duty — human beings can no more suppress their revenge impulse than can they curb their instincts for sex and hunger for food. Getting even is a biological necessity.

Bravo!

Later Rosenbaum brings revenge into specifically economic terms, Satan's mother-tongue:

There is a paradox in our distaste for "an eye for an eye." Most people abhor having to accept discounts in their professional or private lives. ... And yet, when it comes to the most crushing of debts ... large-scale human suffering, an assault on dignity so great that honor is not easily recaptured — our math skills suddenly fail us, and we become reluctant to support equivalent punishments. A new calculus is created, one that doesn't add up.

So we tolerate a legal system where over 95 percent of all cases are resolved with a negotiated plea, bargained down from what the wrongdoer rightfully deserved.

I doubt that the Satans of the ACLU will ever comprehend this point, but at least now it's been written in terms that they can read. Now they have no excuse for continuing to do evil.

Example in today's news: The Satans of Die-Versity are hammering Saudi for its use of mathematically and morally proper retribution:

The UK has urged Saudi Arabia not to carry out a reported sentencing of paralysis for a Saudi man as punishment for paralysing another man. A Foreign Office spokesperson said London was "deeply concerned" by the sentence, describing it as "grotesque"

No, Satan. It's not grotesque at all. Your own smashing of OUR civilization is grotesque. Criminals actually learn from retribution. When you use endless legal proceedings and brief repeated imprisonment as "punishment", you are supporting crime. And since you're Satan, that's your goal.

A few other intellectuals seem to be picking up the idea; I've noted a piece by Dominick Lawson that shows some comprehension. But Rosenbaum hits the point precisely and completely.

= = = = =

Afterthought: Though Rosenbaum brilliantly describes plea-bargaining as 'discounted justice', there is one true advantage in plea-bargaining. Under the insane conditions imposed by ACLU, a full trial is merely a bet, rigged to guarantee freedom for rich defendants. (Pretty much the same as our economic system, also designed by the same people. Nothing but rigged bets to enrich Goldman.) Even if the full trial mistakenly reaches a correct verdict for a brief moment before it's re-rigged by an appeal, the result is delayed so long that the punishment has no value to the criminal or the victim. Plea-bargaining nearly always reaches the correct result, because common criminals are nearly always guilty. Best of all, it runs fast, often only a few days from arrest to sentence. The criminal and the victim can understand what's happening.

Labels: Natural law = Sharia law

  ¶ 4:26 AM