And Adult Conversation
It is said that even the dozen US states without capital punishment are just one hideous murder away from bringing in the death penalty.While there are events so concievably horrible [some that have occured and some that have not] that even Liberal Blogger General Stan can accept an argument for enacting of the death penalty, the evidence stands so firmly against it, in his mind, that he can never accept the act of a government retalitory killing.
But recent years have seen a steady decline in the numbers of death sentences handed down, and a series of legal steps limiting the use of the ultimate sanction.
For the first time in decades, abolitionists are daring to think the unthinkable.
Professor Michael Mello, a former Florida capital crime defender, says for the first time in his life the US is "engaged in a grown-up debate about capital punishment".
We will not debate certain evidences here. You can engage in the debate by Googling, or check here for a starting point on anti-death penalty arguments. Check here to see the other side, "debunking" these arguments [weakly, of course].
The reason is a moral perception above all else: that a state [read: any public body] has no right to determine the right of any other person to live or not. And that this right to life must be determined by higher powers.
For film reference, see Kieslowski's A Short Film About Killing or Decalogue #5, No End, and Noe's Irreversible to see the reprehensible damage brought about by great violence that seeks to bring justice for great violence.
posted by General Stan at 10:21 PM
2 Comments:
You know, I think you're right: this debate is the debate in America because it is a true conversation. There are obvious reasons for both sides of the argument, and it's vital that they all be heard. The primary problem I have with the death penalty is that the system is so unjust that it seems an utter crime. As America falls more into Foucault's panopticon-culture, and as America becomes not just the world's greatest Prison, but the world's greatest Inprisonment, the death penalty will proportionately follow those abuses. So I'm one of those who say: "any death that is unjustified is wrong. One killed inmate who is proven innocent is a crime, and makes the system criminal." i'm one of those who say that I refuse to allow murderers to walk the street- they have no moral or ethical right to take a life; and therefore I refuse to be part of a state of murder.
This may be an extreme view for some. And I'm also willing to accept that.
But you're totally right that it is the only political/moral topic that can actually breed some kind of discussion rather than some kind of hatred for both sides of the argument.
this is a great slate article outlining, as you say, the cognitive dissonance between a position against stem cell research for the reasons that it is an ethical violation to take one life to save others; while holding fast to the position that capital punishment is an ethical necessity whereby taking one life to save others is a vital moral [utilitarean] need.
But this dissonance isn't purely cognitive (ie: you THINK one thing while also THINKING the exact opposite of that thing and you accept both as being true), this is an ethical dissonance as well, guided by a confused and convoluted religious "position" on the womb as well as a clear and brutalist religious mandate on the criminal, neither of which have successfully or fully been Defined in contemporary secular life.
Or... something like that.
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