In the time I have been around on this terra firma, I have witnessed successive generations of spoiled brats evolve into self-absorbed adults, begetting even greater spoiled brats who morph into even greater self-absorbed adults. We now live with what I perceive to be a population of totally selfish humanoids, totally obsessed with materialistic and hedonistic pursuits, and reveling in the bliss of self-imposed ignorance the likes of which I never dreamed possible.
The first discernible leak in the dike seems to have occurred around the time when Dr. Spock made the scene and firmly established the beachhead of permissive parenting. That set the stage for the spawning of all sorts of disciplines subsumed under the title of “behavioral scientists,” that found a reason and an explanation for every conceivable kind of aberrant human behavior. It seems as if everyone is now the victim.
I grew up in a time when it was rather well understood that privilege belonged to adults and, with hard work and maturity, children would eventually earn their place as adults, with all the rights and privileges thereto pertaining. We have now evolved from an adult-centered society to a child-centered society. No longer do we give credence to such notions as character, honor, integrity, discipline and morality. Those are as passé as home-cooked meals, and what a price our society has paid for their indulgences and our folly. Discipline begets self-discipline. Self-discipline begets character, honor, integrity, and the very moral fiber that binds good and decent people together. With the passage of time and this evolution toward more permissive enlightenment, we have little more than social, political and economic chaos.
One of the most glaring consequences of what we have wrought is the naïve belief that we are all governed by the same system of laws. Rather, the application of laws seems to be situational and, more often than not, predicated on economic and social status. If one is a member of the elite Washington Establishment, it is almost certain that the laws of the land simply do not apply, save for a peek in a restroom stall or cavorting with a prostitute. Otherwise, our nation’s Capitol, and indeed the country, are up for grabs. One can lie a nation into war, flaunt the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, consign over 4,000 young men and women to an early death, and bankrupt the country without so much as a slap on the wrist. Meanwhile, impeachment is “off the table,” per Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. After all, they cannot put the nation through all that, but they will dutifully go out, wave the flag, extol the virtues of those having made the “ultimate sacrifice” in order to protect our country, and bankrupt the nation without so much as a whimper. On the other hand, if one is at the other end of the socio-economic spectrum, you can bet your bippy that the strong arm of the law stands poised to randomly strike for the least serious of infractions.
I am sufficiently idealistic as to cling to the belief that the law should apply equally to every citizen of this country. That crime is on the rise doesn’t require a battery of polls or social studies to confirm that fact. All one has to do is to watch the evening news with some degree of regularity. However, what we throw some people in the slammer for and let others off for begs logical explanation.
I think we need to re-visit the merits of individual responsibility and accountability. If you did it, you pay the consequences. On the other hand, I think the whole issue of what we incarcerate people for needs to be re-examined. Our system is all over the board and simply makes no sense whatsoever. There are just too many people in prison for crimes that don’t warrant incarceration. There are, also, too many people walking the streets who should be cooling their heels behind bars.
Individual and collective responsibility need to be re-introduced as essential to life in a civilized society. “Doing your own thing” is a credo for excesses that even the most primitive of cultures abhor. That particular philosophy has been around for a sufficient period of time to clearly establish that it has not and does not accrue to our collective benefit.
Parents should be held responsible for the actions of their offspring up to age 18. If one of their little dimpled darlings destroys or vandalizes property or does bodily harm to another, well Mom and Dad should be on the spot for paying recompense for such behavior, even at the expense of re-financing the home, car, etc. The taxpayers should not have to bear any part of the burden. We have enough on our plate with myriad other more pressing needs.
I just don’t buy into all that is peddled by the various organized groups of bleeding hearts that salvation is there for everyone, if only we will give him or her another chance. Some people are just bad from the “get-go” and no amount of resources beamed at restoring them will ever produce positive results. It shouldn’t take a brain buster to objectively determine who falls into this category, so they can be duly put away in order to spare society the cost of their criminal behavior Violent career criminals and sex offenders readily come to mind.
I am one who just doesn’t happen to believe that violent sex offenders and pedophiles ever change. As far as I am concerned, there is no cure. Violent sex offenders should go directly to the big house with no possibility of parole. Following the outcome of their appeal, if the charge still stands, castration and a guaranteed lifetime cell should follow. As for non-violent pedophiles, the minimum sentence should be lifetime parole, with the clear understanding that the first time he falls off the wagon, off with the plumbing and directly to the slammer without passing “GO” and collecting $200. If you abuse it, you lose it. That should be easily understood.
As for the rest of those wayward souls who run afoul of the law, I don’t lump them all together. We need to seriously look at a two-tiered prison system.
For first-time offenders, minus sociopaths and violent criminals, the prison system to which they are consigned should be based on a model designed to provide maximum opportunity for rehabilitation and their return to society. Life and accommodations there could be modeled after that provided for basic training to our armed forces. Education and a therapeutic milieu should provide for the opportunity to acquire an education and learn how to master the skills necessary to be functioning members of society. Entertainment and literature should be devoid of violence and sexually explicit materials. Access to the Internet should be restricted if not prohibited altogether. College courses could be taught for credits toward a degree. As the foundation for a sound liberal arts education, a course should be available on the 100 Greatest Books Ever Written. Given that the population is there because of criminal conduct, there would need to be a structured regimen and a disciplined lifestyle.
Part of the sentence should be a field trip to the second of a two-tiered prison system, the one for career and violent criminals, augmented by classes on what it means to be a member of that population. The message and admonition should clearly convey that if you don’t make it after the first tier, the next time you offend you will be on the fast-tract to the real deal, where rehabilitation is not the order of the day; punishment is.
Because we seem to have lost sight of the value of discipline and punishment in favor of what are euphemistically referred to as “country club prisons, life in the second-tier prison system should be hard time characterized by an austere lifestyle and hard work. Entertainment should be limited to educational television channels and public broadcasting. No videos or access to the Internet. No violent or sexually explicit materials of any kind, including reading material. College courses could be made available, but not in Law or Criminal Justice. Time devoted on how to beat the system should have no place here.
Workdays should be 10 - 12 hours, six days per week, Labor would be devoted to manual arts such as making license plates, and building furniture and pre-fabricated homes for indigent populations, victims of disasters, military bases, prison populations, etc. Proceeds from disaster relief and welfare organizations could be used to defray the cost to the taxpayers for operation of the prison systems.
The option of parole should be applied within strict guidelines and not be subject to liberal interpretation where society is likely to get the short end of the stick. John Q. Public has had quite enough, thank you.
Cowboy Bob
July 2, 2008
The first discernible leak in the dike seems to have occurred around the time when Dr. Spock made the scene and firmly established the beachhead of permissive parenting. That set the stage for the spawning of all sorts of disciplines subsumed under the title of “behavioral scientists,” that found a reason and an explanation for every conceivable kind of aberrant human behavior. It seems as if everyone is now the victim.
I grew up in a time when it was rather well understood that privilege belonged to adults and, with hard work and maturity, children would eventually earn their place as adults, with all the rights and privileges thereto pertaining. We have now evolved from an adult-centered society to a child-centered society. No longer do we give credence to such notions as character, honor, integrity, discipline and morality. Those are as passé as home-cooked meals, and what a price our society has paid for their indulgences and our folly. Discipline begets self-discipline. Self-discipline begets character, honor, integrity, and the very moral fiber that binds good and decent people together. With the passage of time and this evolution toward more permissive enlightenment, we have little more than social, political and economic chaos.
One of the most glaring consequences of what we have wrought is the naïve belief that we are all governed by the same system of laws. Rather, the application of laws seems to be situational and, more often than not, predicated on economic and social status. If one is a member of the elite Washington Establishment, it is almost certain that the laws of the land simply do not apply, save for a peek in a restroom stall or cavorting with a prostitute. Otherwise, our nation’s Capitol, and indeed the country, are up for grabs. One can lie a nation into war, flaunt the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, consign over 4,000 young men and women to an early death, and bankrupt the country without so much as a slap on the wrist. Meanwhile, impeachment is “off the table,” per Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. After all, they cannot put the nation through all that, but they will dutifully go out, wave the flag, extol the virtues of those having made the “ultimate sacrifice” in order to protect our country, and bankrupt the nation without so much as a whimper. On the other hand, if one is at the other end of the socio-economic spectrum, you can bet your bippy that the strong arm of the law stands poised to randomly strike for the least serious of infractions.
I am sufficiently idealistic as to cling to the belief that the law should apply equally to every citizen of this country. That crime is on the rise doesn’t require a battery of polls or social studies to confirm that fact. All one has to do is to watch the evening news with some degree of regularity. However, what we throw some people in the slammer for and let others off for begs logical explanation.
I think we need to re-visit the merits of individual responsibility and accountability. If you did it, you pay the consequences. On the other hand, I think the whole issue of what we incarcerate people for needs to be re-examined. Our system is all over the board and simply makes no sense whatsoever. There are just too many people in prison for crimes that don’t warrant incarceration. There are, also, too many people walking the streets who should be cooling their heels behind bars.
Individual and collective responsibility need to be re-introduced as essential to life in a civilized society. “Doing your own thing” is a credo for excesses that even the most primitive of cultures abhor. That particular philosophy has been around for a sufficient period of time to clearly establish that it has not and does not accrue to our collective benefit.
Parents should be held responsible for the actions of their offspring up to age 18. If one of their little dimpled darlings destroys or vandalizes property or does bodily harm to another, well Mom and Dad should be on the spot for paying recompense for such behavior, even at the expense of re-financing the home, car, etc. The taxpayers should not have to bear any part of the burden. We have enough on our plate with myriad other more pressing needs.
I just don’t buy into all that is peddled by the various organized groups of bleeding hearts that salvation is there for everyone, if only we will give him or her another chance. Some people are just bad from the “get-go” and no amount of resources beamed at restoring them will ever produce positive results. It shouldn’t take a brain buster to objectively determine who falls into this category, so they can be duly put away in order to spare society the cost of their criminal behavior Violent career criminals and sex offenders readily come to mind.
I am one who just doesn’t happen to believe that violent sex offenders and pedophiles ever change. As far as I am concerned, there is no cure. Violent sex offenders should go directly to the big house with no possibility of parole. Following the outcome of their appeal, if the charge still stands, castration and a guaranteed lifetime cell should follow. As for non-violent pedophiles, the minimum sentence should be lifetime parole, with the clear understanding that the first time he falls off the wagon, off with the plumbing and directly to the slammer without passing “GO” and collecting $200. If you abuse it, you lose it. That should be easily understood.
As for the rest of those wayward souls who run afoul of the law, I don’t lump them all together. We need to seriously look at a two-tiered prison system.
For first-time offenders, minus sociopaths and violent criminals, the prison system to which they are consigned should be based on a model designed to provide maximum opportunity for rehabilitation and their return to society. Life and accommodations there could be modeled after that provided for basic training to our armed forces. Education and a therapeutic milieu should provide for the opportunity to acquire an education and learn how to master the skills necessary to be functioning members of society. Entertainment and literature should be devoid of violence and sexually explicit materials. Access to the Internet should be restricted if not prohibited altogether. College courses could be taught for credits toward a degree. As the foundation for a sound liberal arts education, a course should be available on the 100 Greatest Books Ever Written. Given that the population is there because of criminal conduct, there would need to be a structured regimen and a disciplined lifestyle.
Part of the sentence should be a field trip to the second of a two-tiered prison system, the one for career and violent criminals, augmented by classes on what it means to be a member of that population. The message and admonition should clearly convey that if you don’t make it after the first tier, the next time you offend you will be on the fast-tract to the real deal, where rehabilitation is not the order of the day; punishment is.
Because we seem to have lost sight of the value of discipline and punishment in favor of what are euphemistically referred to as “country club prisons, life in the second-tier prison system should be hard time characterized by an austere lifestyle and hard work. Entertainment should be limited to educational television channels and public broadcasting. No videos or access to the Internet. No violent or sexually explicit materials of any kind, including reading material. College courses could be made available, but not in Law or Criminal Justice. Time devoted on how to beat the system should have no place here.
Workdays should be 10 - 12 hours, six days per week, Labor would be devoted to manual arts such as making license plates, and building furniture and pre-fabricated homes for indigent populations, victims of disasters, military bases, prison populations, etc. Proceeds from disaster relief and welfare organizations could be used to defray the cost to the taxpayers for operation of the prison systems.
The option of parole should be applied within strict guidelines and not be subject to liberal interpretation where society is likely to get the short end of the stick. John Q. Public has had quite enough, thank you.
Cowboy Bob
July 2, 2008
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