Brian wrote:
>> Are you seriously asserting that without a criminal justice
>> system there would be less crime?
>
>Yes. The primary purpose of the criminal justice system (i.e., the
>police/prison system backed by the military) is political repression,
>including in the US strike-breaking, putting down dissent by the
>people, etc. But, it helps to have the people's tacit support for
>this, so they make up a story about helping people keep down anti-
>social behavior, or "crime." To make this plausible, they need a
>class of criminals to fight against during the periods between
>heightened revolutionary activity when the cops are busy doing their
>real work.
I'm glad that crime is a "story." I guess I don't have to lock my doors
anymore, and I can feel free to walk the streets of the city late at night
without a care in the world. I guess no one really violates pollution control
regulations, no white collar criminals steal create schemes to cheat consumers
and employees, there are no rapists, no murders, no arson. It's all a story to
justify the system of repression that keeps all those political prisoners under
lock and key. I'm reminded of a satire I read in the 60's, about how a
revolutionary was being persecuted by being imprisoned. All he had done was to
execute (murder) a couple of fascist pigs (police) in the attempt to liberate
(steal) some funds from a capitalist oppressor (bank) to support the revolution
(drug habit) of the people (him and his friends). I guess if you see the world
through this prism of revolution and class warfare, things look that way to
you. I'm no fan of vice-crime; I think drugs should be legal. But there is a
lot of real crime out there, too. Around where I live, the police are a very
welcome presence. "The people" are all too unable to control their own
behavior.
Brian wrote:
>> How would you deal with a rape case
>This presupposes that the present system effectively reduces rape.
>It doesn't. It's not designed to. Rape is intricately linked with
>male dominance, and the police/prison system helps to maintain male
>dominance.
How does the prison system help to maintain male dominance in this context? If
rapists can rape with impunity, how many more men would commit rapes? Studies
indicate that a lot more would (at least they say they would). You just don't
answer my question. I suggested that rape cases would be impossible for
"concerned citizen groups" to deal with. You answer by saying that our current
system doesn't reduce rapes. First of all, you are skirting the question.
Secondly, if you don't think our system reduces rapes, consider the amount of
rape that occurs when no authority is around to punish it. Consider the amount
of rape in Bosnia, as just one example. In fact, it is not government, but
anarchy that maintains male dominance. Left to themselves, the uncivil amongst
males are going to assert their physical dominance to the fullest extent.
Brian wrote:
>> True anarchy (by that I mean absence of authority) has never boded well for
>>the weak. One of the best examples of what happens when anarchy prevails can
>>be found in "Andersonville" by MacKinley Kantor. No one could read this and
>> maintain a belief in abandoning authority in the naive hope that human
>>nature will keep us safe and secure.
>
>I'm confused about this example--I thought "Andersonville" was a
>prison camp, i.e., a hierarchical structure?
Andersonville was a civil war prison in which the Confederate commandant
abdicated all authority to the prisoners. It became a classic case of "only
the strong (and evil) survive." It took a concerted effort by the good men to
organize, fight and destroy the bad guys, and set up a kind of government,
including police. Only then could some semblance of order be maintained.
I fear for what would happen to women and to the environment if we truly moved
toward a society devoid of authority. It just isn't true that authority is
intrinsically bad. It is a necessary condition for civilization.
H.C. Ellis
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tue Nov 15 10:57:06 MST 1994
From: "LALONDE ROXANNE" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Organization: Dept. of Geography, Univ. of Alta.
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 1994 10:59:05 MDT
Subject: Re: The nature of nature
In response to the following:
> It seems to me (and I wish I were wrong) that violence/aggression is
> endemic to nature and that it will therefore exist in some form in
> all societies.
What human beings perceive as "violence" in nature is merely natural
predatory relationships that perpetuate the cycle of life. I don't
see it as a cause/effect kind of thing for human beings to use
as a model for our own communities. We do have a higher awareness of
such things and can transcend some of these so-called "natural" laws
by consciously choosing not to behave that way.
Just my humble opinion.
Roxanne
