Crime IS Punishment

essay

I'm not joking. Crime IS the punishment for this society. You may believe otherwise. You may believe what you've been told to believe, or even what you think is true using reasonable logic.

You would be mistaken. The people who told you what to believe were also mistaken. They were guilty of a very common error in human judgement-- local thinking. Local thinking is the opposite of global thinking, or 'big picture' thinking, which itself is the consideration of all factors in problem solving, not just the immediate ones. Consider this example:

A man steals from a drugstore. A Local Thinker sees this fact and looks no further, thinking, "That's theft-- end of story." Police are paid to be Local Thinkers. They arrest him and he stands before a judge, who asks the man why he stole from a drugstore. The man explains he is an honest man, but it is medicine he cannot afford and will save his child's life. The medicine itself is inexpensive to manufacture but is made artificially high because it is the only one which saves lives for this particular illness, and the maker is greedy and inflexible.

Judges are Global Thinkers, but are restricted by laws to behave as a Local Thinker might. Though they see the conflict inherent in stealing to save a life, he must still exact specific punishment on a good man, and could very likely allow a child to die in the process.

Global Thinking looks at the entire situation, ignores the theft and charges society with murder.

Crime is the punishment for a society which is set up to protect the money more than the people. Although we purport to be protecting our citizenry, one quick look at most of our laws and you will see that (at the very least) protecting our money (and our stuff) is just as important (if not more so).

I've said before that a correctly designed society effectively has no crime. The reason there is no crime in a well designed society is because the people are content. Their desires are met and they have been raised to be responsible so if they have desires which cannot immediately be met, they can manage their disappointment with maturity. There is no crime because there are no unresolved negative feelings.

What is a 'Correctly Designed Society'? At its core is the assumption that people's needs, wants and desires should be addressed, so long as they do not impede the rights of others or of society. That is commonly called the 'Golden Rule'. The word 'gold' implies value, because decency is that valuable. It is an old pronouncement, biblically old as a matter of fact, which shows that even our less advanced descendants knew how people wanted to be treated.

It's basic.

So... why are we still not doing it right?

We know why. I covered it in an earlier post. The root of all evil is... say it with me now, people!

MONEY!

Or more precisely, the hoarding of money. The LOVE of money. The greed factor. But why is greed so bad? Hoarding is what squirrels do with nuts to prepare for winter, right?
Hoarding, or greed, is a survival trait.

The difference between us and squirrels is that while squirrels are rugged individualists looking out for themselves, we form societies which support each other, so that the society may grow stronger. That's a big difference and it has allowed us to become the civilization we are today. But while nuts will always be just food, money can represent anything of value in human society, so the temptation doesn't end when your belly is full. Our needs are more complex than the squirrels', and we have a huge list of wants that squirrels don't.

That list of wants is just a pile of money away... a piece of knowledge which is just too tempting for some people. They want what they want, and correctly believe the way to accomplish it is with money, and although earning enough money legally is surprisingly difficult, STEALING it from someone else is much easier. And just like that we've created crime.

Why have we created a society which has so much to offer... but isn't likely to offer it to anyone? It didn't set out that way, I'm thinking. The desire to have all those wants satisfied is what caused so much creativity-- inventors invent because if successful, piles of money come their way, which of course brings fulfillment of desires. Singers sing their hearts out because, if they are considered the best, people will throw money at them to have them perform. The same is true in most occupations-- if you are the best, you will be in high demand.

Of course, if they sing their heart out and people DON'T think they're the best (or at least very good), there will be no piles of cash, no big houses, no fancy cars, no toys, no fun. What do they do then? How do they ensure the wealth that brings about comfort and eliminates fear?

LEGALLY, they could create another demand which accompanies their performance, the way KISS did with makeup, smoke and lasers.
IMMORALLY, a performer could defraud their listening public by lip syncing, like Milli Vanilli did. Or, they could listen when their parents told them to take a major in college to 'fall back on', like business or law, and forget the dream of music entirely. Many people make the wise choices, but some are doomed to pick the road of lower standards. And with lowered standards comes... say it with me... CRIME!

None of the opportunities which make crime attractive will exist in the Perfect World; none of the personality types cultivated in our current, imperfect world even exist in the Perfect World; and while there are many different types of crimes today, in the World Family of the future many of those laws will not even exist, so performing those behaviors will not even be considered a crime.

Eliminating Criminal Behavior

First Easiest Way

Get rid of some ridiculous laws, and just like that, the people who do those things are no longer criminals. Two good examples are drugs and sex. People take drugs to alleviate pain and stress; people have sex because it feels so damn good. Does it make sense that these behaviors are criminal? Of course not-- we already permit sex freely in society, and we issue prescription drugs for pain and stress, so these things already exist. The difference is that the government receives no tax from hookers and dealers. To solve that, they are considered 'nuisance' criminals, and punished financially-- mostly to derive funding for the city-- call it a 'sin' tax. The remaining lawbreakers go to prison, which costs society a great deal of money. Their crime was essentially practicing business without a license. End this archaic practice.

Second Easiest Way

Educate our youth properly while re-educating our failed, disaffected adults. Give them a reason to get up in the morning, a reason to be proud of themselves. Teach to the student, concentrating on each student's areas of natural ability. Give them real-life, hands-on experience. Pique their interests and avoid treating them like replaceable cogs in a machine. Strive to eliminate humiliating occupations in society. Even out compensation for any occupation to match ability and importance; and prevent a wide disparity between the lowest-paid job and the highest.

Third Easiest Way (AKA First Hardest Way)

How it's being done now. Lay down vague, Draconian laws that most people cross quite by accident, then punish them harshly when they are caught. Place them in long-term holding cages with all other criminals, including cold-blooded killers, and look the other way when they are being abused by them. Later, cast them back into society with a notation on their resumé marking them as convicts, making it impossible for them to earn a living wage legally. Watch them carefully so at the first slip they can be thrown back into prison. Build a society of fear, stress and sorrow.

The OTHER Crimes

We know that not all crimes are driven by greed (the acquisition of cash). Some are crimes of passion, as with domestic violence. Others are crimes of selfishness, like spitting on the sidewalk or performing a high wire act between tall buildings without a permit. Still others involve ignorance (like killing a jew because they are 'devils'), apathy (by failing to report a witnessed crime) or gluttony, like when stealing rolls from a restaurant.

Some of these crimes are minor, or even simple infractions. That does not change the fact that a human chose to commit them, knowing it was against the law. Assigning an 'intensity' to a crime is the role of government and doesn't impact a deeply bothered citizen when they are reacting to what they see as an untenable situation. There's a bit of delicious irony for you... many times when a crime is being committed, it is being done by someone who is trying to right an injustice present in our faulted set of laws! A good person gets bitten in the ass by the legal system, because it is unable to right society's wrongs!

Using 'Big Picture' thinking, start by looking at each crime and the reasons surrounding it. Understand the motivation of the lawbreaker, and delve into their emotional state. Accept the fact that in most cases, someone who breaks the law hasn't changed their basic decency. An important step in understanding human behavior is to recognize that loss of dignity is a very strong motivator of crime. Very often the reason for committing widely different crimes the same-- a reaction to the deep discontent with how we behave towards each other.

Conclusion

How many people would be breaking laws, if the laws were designed to work with people and their flaws, instead of holding each of them to an unsustainable level of perfection? How much anger could we squelch simply by making certain poverty ceased to exist? How much MORE rage could be stopped by making certain vast wealth could not be held by individuals or families? Perfect world theory surmises that most crime will disappear when the reasons for crime disappear... that's kind of a no-brainer.

Copyright 2009 Bruce Ian Friedman