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How not to want vengeance
May. 13th, 2002 10:10 pmI have this terrible habit of engaging in conversation with people on Livejournal and then deciding that what I'm about to say/have just said belongs on my journal, so that more people can worship at the feet of the glory that is Andy.
Ahem. Anyway, I was chatting to Gordon about vengeance.
He said that most people when they say they want justice mean vengeance. And I was adding (in my own inimitable, must make everything about me if at all possible) that I didn't want vengeance. And he pointed out that I didn't really want justice either. I can certainly see that I only want some forms of justice. I certainly don't necessarily want justice as in "A fair punishment for the crime", because I don't believe that punishment is necessarily the best answer to crime.
(You'll have noticed that I keep using the word necessarily. It's not just because I can't think of a better word, but also because I'm equivocating here. The best answer to crime is something that isn't studied enough because, as Gordon has pointed out before, people don't want justice or what's "right", they want vengeance.)
Anyway, Gordon said that not wanting vengeance was probably just me, and he didn't know how not want to want vengeance (which I can entirely understand. Revenge makes people feel great. Just look at the amount of fiction based around revenge stories), so without any further ado (we've had quite enough ado already) is my guide to not wanting vengeance:
1) Stop believing in free will. It's a silly idea at best, and after thinking about it for a few years I realised that I have no idea what it might even mean any more.
2) Having given up on free will, realise that people are as responsible for their acts as a cyclone or an earthquake or a lightning strike or a tsunami. This isn't to say that you can't bear in mind likely actions and attempt to avoid them or change them, but to hold people responsible for the mechanical actions caused by genetics and circumstance seems ridiculous. They can't help it any more than any other mechanical system.
3) Start thinking about prevention rather than punishment. Now, you wouldn't punish a river to stop your house being flooded a second time, would you? You'd try to work out the best way to make it not flood again, whether that was redirecting it, or moving to a less floodable area, or flood calming techniques. Sure, it might be curable with a few tons of TNT, but even then, you're engaging in prevention rather than punishment.
4) To make yourself feel better about this, go and read some of the existing statistics on what actually prevents recidivism. Notice that generally speaking, the best way to lower crime rates and general nastiness is in fact to make people happier and richer. Job creation schemes, training, education and free speech are all things which lower violence, theft and all sorts of other nastiness. Punishment, on the other hand, seems to have very little effect.
Ahem. Anyway, I was chatting to Gordon about vengeance.
He said that most people when they say they want justice mean vengeance. And I was adding (in my own inimitable, must make everything about me if at all possible) that I didn't want vengeance. And he pointed out that I didn't really want justice either. I can certainly see that I only want some forms of justice. I certainly don't necessarily want justice as in "A fair punishment for the crime", because I don't believe that punishment is necessarily the best answer to crime.
(You'll have noticed that I keep using the word necessarily. It's not just because I can't think of a better word, but also because I'm equivocating here. The best answer to crime is something that isn't studied enough because, as Gordon has pointed out before, people don't want justice or what's "right", they want vengeance.)
Anyway, Gordon said that not wanting vengeance was probably just me, and he didn't know how not want to want vengeance (which I can entirely understand. Revenge makes people feel great. Just look at the amount of fiction based around revenge stories), so without any further ado (we've had quite enough ado already) is my guide to not wanting vengeance:
1) Stop believing in free will. It's a silly idea at best, and after thinking about it for a few years I realised that I have no idea what it might even mean any more.
2) Having given up on free will, realise that people are as responsible for their acts as a cyclone or an earthquake or a lightning strike or a tsunami. This isn't to say that you can't bear in mind likely actions and attempt to avoid them or change them, but to hold people responsible for the mechanical actions caused by genetics and circumstance seems ridiculous. They can't help it any more than any other mechanical system.
3) Start thinking about prevention rather than punishment. Now, you wouldn't punish a river to stop your house being flooded a second time, would you? You'd try to work out the best way to make it not flood again, whether that was redirecting it, or moving to a less floodable area, or flood calming techniques. Sure, it might be curable with a few tons of TNT, but even then, you're engaging in prevention rather than punishment.
4) To make yourself feel better about this, go and read some of the existing statistics on what actually prevents recidivism. Notice that generally speaking, the best way to lower crime rates and general nastiness is in fact to make people happier and richer. Job creation schemes, training, education and free speech are all things which lower violence, theft and all sorts of other nastiness. Punishment, on the other hand, seems to have very little effect.
