T P O

T   P   O
The Patient Ox (aka Hénock Gugsa)

G r e e t i n g s !

** TPO **
A personal blog with diverse topicality and multiple interests!


On the menu ... politics, music, poetry, and other good stuff.
There is humor, but there is blunt seriousness here as well!


Parfois, on parle français ici aussi. Je suis un francophile .... Bienvenue à tous!

* Your comments and evaluations are appreciated ! *

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

"Punishment and Crime" - reflections by Hénock Gugsa



"Punishment and Crime"
- reflections by -
Hénock Gugsa
=//=//=//=

No, no misalignment of thought there, no dyslexia of mind processes. I am indeed thinking of punishment as something that should precede crime at least in the philosophical investigation aspect of certain human situations (or predicaments). This certainly is a twist or rather a reversal on the way we view matters. We begin with the destination, the present state of affairs, and work our way back to the beginning. I am hoping that we may shed a different light on matters that in turn could point the way to different outlooks. We could profit with some wisdom on how to handle future situations. Let us think of punishments first, then let us consider what crimes could precipitate them.

Recently, in Iran, authorities executed a billionaire businessman who was “at the heart of a $2.6 billion state bank scam”. The indicted man, one Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, received the maximum punishment of death by hanging for the crime he committed during the previous regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Alas, in Iran, some of the worst cases of corruption and economic ineptitude happened between 2005 and 2013. Ahmadinejad was too busy back then focusing his attack on foreign "satanic" powers while his country was being domestically ransacked and ravaged by homegrown demons. And this brings us to the question of the role of punishment as a pre-deterrent to crime. Let us examine what punishment is, what it means, and how we should really perceive it.

To begin, punishment is a price, a penance delivered by a person or a government body for wrongful deed or thought. Depending on the situation or circumstance, punishment is either self-administered or exacted by an authority. Of-course, we know that self-punishment is a result of guilt or remorse, and it may also be due to some questionable state of mental acuity. The type of punishment that society calls for, on the other hand, is based on a legal or institutional framework. But, here we are in an area of philosophical and political landmines too complex to fathom in a short essay. Suffice it to say that punishment is what the law demands for a crime. Our concern is twofold: How weighty is punishment and how does it affect a person before the crime is even committed?

As we have come to know, the United States and Iran faced, almost simultaneously, similar types of crimes by despicable, and unremorseful individuals. How did each country handle their respective cases?

In the U.S., the whole story could be summed up as a shameful farce. The wrong doers got off practically scot-free … not even a slap on the hand. There were massive bailouts and assessment of miscreant financial bodies as “too-big-to-fail”. Instead of stricter regulations or enforcement of existing rules, there were cries for more 'freedom' for the capitalist economy.

Iran, however, has more rigid standards and is stricter because it  cannot afford to be otherwise. Being a theocratic state means that the conduct of individuals as it affects the nation is not taken lightly. Crime is seen for what it is, and punishment is not necessarily an outcome, but the mirror image. So when one thinks of committing a crime, there is already a built-in counter-perspective that brings a person to his senses. To go ahead with a crime in spite of everything denotes madness, garden-variety sociopathy, or plain stupidity.

Back in the old days, before modernity crept in, the United States used to aspire to uphold the law unbendingly and even to spread an individualistic sense of right and wrong as a social mantra. Punishment was swift and severe as many horse thieves, poachers, and cattle rustlers would attest. After all, the wrongful dispossession of people’s property could literally mean the endangerment of their lives. When people committed crimes, they knew very well how it would end if they got caught, and so they were always on the run. They were outlaws, and they knew their days were numbered.

In recent years, however, criminals don’t even seem to be aware of the concept of punishment. It has sadly become an after-the-fact realization. Why should law offenders be concerned with punishment? They see a lot of crime go unpunished, they see men of power or wealth almost always beating the system. There is mob crime, and Wall Street crime. What is the difference? What the heck?

Then there are the politicians … what piece of work they are? We last had a presidential candidate who:

- vociferously claimed corporations were human beings

-didn’t think 47% of the populace were with him, and   that was okay [he didn’t need them, they were moochers and losers anyways.]

- didn’t want to make public his off-shore holdings as it was nobody’s business, and

- thought he could lie with a straight face about his accomplishments [and people wouldn’t see straight through him].

Well, to be sure, things are not perfectly rosy right now, but they sure would have been a hell of a lot worse if that man had become President. Think of the message that would have sent across the country: no more need for responsiveness and what was that ‘responsibility’ thing you were talking about?

So, in conclusion, there is one undeniably urgent task for America to undertake. We need to put the horse before the cart: let us emphasize and enforce punishment ahead of any discussion of a severe antisocial behavior (i.e. a crime). Punishment of a crime is not a crime. And indeed, the lack of punishment for a crime is far worse than the crime itself.


No comments: