Dear Tim-bro,
Basically I agree with what you say. -- that is with your remarks, but in my opinion your suggested remedies are only little scratches attempted against the granite hardness of the situation. Far from being "idealistic" as you called me, Ithink I am more cynical than you are about the state of the world and its peoples.
Speaking just of the USA, and to some lesser extent, Canada, since it's only fair that I should only speak of what I know best, there are already
far too many people in jail in the USA as it is. You must know it, too. They are mostly a certain kind of people. There you have too many blacks in jail. Here we have too many native Indians in jail. It isn't all because of their colour
, or lack of education, either. They really did those things that plunged them
into jail. Most of what surrounds them in life has helped to corrupt them. They have both sinned, and been greatly sinned against. And by their *own* leaders
in many cases. To study this is heartbreaking. It is also only becoming known
gradually, but has persisted for a very long time.
Whole groups of people in the world, both high and low are infected, so it seemsimpossible to find a way to remedy things. A lot of the root of the problem isgreed and power. What else is new? Sometimes here we tend too often to think that minority groups here such as native Indians are not plagued by their own leaders, when in fact, they are proven to be, and the leaders don't stop at even the
most crude and primitive ways of maintaining money and their power base.
I don't believe things are different elsewhere. What about money and goods that
are stolen by their own governments and officials from their refugees who need
it desperately. What about child soldiers? What about slavery? What about the
oh-so-difficult to overcome and so convenient for many, caste system? What about nations that sell armaments that keep wars going? What about workers who don
't want to lose jobs if such sales stop? What about the trade in women and children? I could continue to point out world-wide corruption at all levels, and how it only continues to breed more.
There are constant efforts here in Canada on the part of judges not to put people, especially young people, in jail. The public is beginning to become very concerned about it too many unsuitable sentences for truly heinous crimes. They are
also becoming very concerned about all the early releases from jail. Life sentences for terrible crimes from which the people emerge from jail in ten or fifteen years and are free to go about among us again. And at the recidivism rates.
I think it is because jail is considered by judges as a place to learn new tricks about how to do whatever your special badness is, and to do it even better. And to make new connections and learn about things you hadn't even thought of before.
You know very well that most of the *really big stealing* today is done by already very well remunerated businessmen who often voted themselves lots of shares and bonuses. They make incredible amounts of money. So have company directors
and top accounting firms.
The amount top CEO's earn now is an astronomical percentage level above what the
average worker is paid. It runs from 80 times to well over 150 times what the
average worker earns. The CEO's have gotten away with it for a very long time but in the past decade it as increased incredibly. Many economists say that it can't continue this way without trouble.
Again in regards to high level white collar crime; it is only very recently
in the USA, when it became so blatant that it almost brought down the stock market and thus the financial system, that some of the perpetrators are being caught
-- and to their great surprise, tried in court, and even --gasp! *Jailed!*
Probably once the furore has settled they will each get off from their sentencemuch too early for various plausible reasons, such as good behaviour and so on.
Quietly, in middle and back pages of newspapers it will be briefly noted that so
-and-so has been released.
How long has this kind of thing, and other major crime been going on? And how much real progress has been made by "the good people" against it? The corruption
of much Western politics (I won't say anything specific about Eastern, as I don
't know enough, but I see the world wide things noted in my third paragraph, above which is enough for me,) the Western mess is legendary from the history that
I read. It has been greatly hidden until now when many old stories are being exposed. They are truly sickening and range from the
days of the various Empires, up through the 1800's, the prohibition in the USA ,
the current world wide drug trade, and the things I've related above which are
now. The ones caught, you will notice, have always been the poorer and the less
well connected people.
Regarding lots of criminal activities, we can clearly see that if the myriad little people didn't partake of the drugs, alcohol, stolen items, and so on, then the big ones wouldn't be able to make their huge profits.
There are also the pollution crimes being perpetrated right now on little people
all over the globe, from which big ones are profiting. They don't care. They
don't live in those places. There are lots of people at all levels who are willing to prove by their actions and purchases that they don't care about the conditions their children and grandchildre will need to survive. There are so many companies that care nothing about the welfare of anything but their bottom line.
There are so many people who don't want to change their comfortable ways and say, with the French King, "After me -- the flood."
All this shows that so much is riddled through from top to bottom that nothing but something extraordinary can save it and change people.
Right now those manipulative and corrupt businessmen mentioned earlier can bringdown whole economies. You think that the behaviour of the corrupt will improve
because of the fear of being caught? Hah! Those at the top who are corrupt just find newer and better ways to get around any attempts to set difficulties in their way.
To turn to other kinds of criminals besides white collar business CEO's now; what about those we call crime figures. Their top people make sure that there are
enough divisions in their operations so that the really high level people are not know by lower levels who might expose them when caught by police. The heads of these cancerous organizations are never cut off because the bosses don't get caught. It's the lower level fall guys who are expendable, who get caught. Little sacrifices to shut up complainers.
A lot of this fall guy business is even going on among those businessmen who have recently been caught in their greedy machinations and brought to trial. If you watch closely and read you find out about it.
Clever lawyers have lots of legal ways to keep clients safe from the law. For instance trial delay can cause cases to be dismissed because they didn't come to
court soon enough. Poor investigations by the police and rivalries between law
enforcement groups have been effective recently, too. So is the statute of limitations as in the Schiavo case.
In cases such as the murderer of young girls the police are under great pressure
to find a focus for the public's hate. The police want to catch the horrible killers, too. Sometimes they convince themselves that they have the right man when they don't. Sometimes men have had evidence manufactured against them, or corrupt witnesses used. They have been trapped and jailed, and are later proven by a death-bed confession by someone else, or by DNA evidence, or other things, to have spent years in prison while being innocent. Under such conditions the death penalty can't be allowed.
Look again at that Schiavo case. I haven't even written about all of the very nasty situations involved. I left out at least four other important and strange considerations. Look at how weird *it* is! There is so much self-interest and what I would call corruption involved that it seems to be insolvable from the point of view of justice for anybody. It seems to be another cancerous thing with tentacles extending in many directions.
I think I'm far more cynical about this kind of corruption than you are. You
actually think that better laws and policing will fix it. I think that it's gone
far beyond fixing. That's why I think there is going to be a great fall. Eventually something is going to cause a terrible fall not unlike the fall of Rome.
There may be a world "dark age" for most of the world because now we have become
so intertwined. I don't say that lightly, either. I don't think there is a magic solution that will make everything suddenly better. It may even take
two or three or five centuries. Five centuries is what it took from the time that Confucius tried to do away with shamanism until the Chinese Royal Courtlistened and banned it.
I usually maintain a positive and optimistic attitude in life. This is both for
my own sake and for that of others around me. Here on the forum some people can
barely bear to live now. They don't need anything more. I try to give what hope I honestly can, and to enliven low spirits and to offer loving help.
I wonder if you understand me. *That's* actually why I'm thoroughly convinced
that nothing but that which has previously had the power to cause a renewal of
civilization will be able to do it this time, too. It is humanity's only hope,
even if it doesn't look quite like that yet. If you assess the whole situation
you can begin to see how deep this goes, and how much needs healing. Sure. It takes rebuilding from the ground up for many institutions, and from the inside, out for many human beings. It isn't possible to fix and patch. The thing is too
far gone. It has gone too far on all levels. Not just on the ones I've mentioned. If I didn't believe that there is this power available to rebuild and to change hearts I myself would be without hope. But I do. I think we can all helpif we want to, too. We need to do all we can to support whatever is healthy in
our present systems, and not to ever try to do any damage. I always do my best
to vote for the best possible, and to support anything I think is positive and to be part of the remedy.
Yes indeed, you are the idealist, and not I. ;->
Your fond Mary-sis
