Friday, December 11, 2009

It is all to easy to destroy faith in society

We establish an ideal, a set of rules by which to live a life. We tell young people about justice, fairness, and equity. They grow up to believe that your rewards are proportionate to your efforts. Then, as they grow older, we jerk the rug from under their feet. They see that the undeserving can be successful, and the good can fall by the wayside. They see the justice system, whether for a murderer or a traffic ticket, is unfair. Whether or not you get a traffic ticket is a matter of chance, it is often made difficult and expensive to fight one, and then if it is ever the police officer's word against even several civilians, the civilians lose - if the officer shows up in court! Given the number of death row exonerations, it is obvious that innocent people have been executed - and guilty ones gone free. If it is so difficult in murder cases, where more effort is expended, then the accuracy of less serious crime convictions is clearly even lower. So innocent people are in prison while guilty ones walk free. As this kind of awareness grows in young people, so does respect for the rules of society diminish - and far too little attention is paid to the consequences.

1 comment:

Jonathan said...

And the solution is?

The trouble is that the problems you describe are some of the fundamental problems of politics, and each person's preferred solution (if he has one at all) is different. These differences clash in the political system, and some unhappy muddled compromise is reached, which never solves the problem.

I don't think we can hope to arrive at a solution that would satisfy you, and a solution that would satisfy everyone is impossible (contradictory requirements). But, sure, some improvement on the present situation should be achievable, if we knew how to achieve it and could all agree on doing so.

Kipling evidently believed (Stalky & Co.) that his unfair and sometimes brutal schooling was a fair preparation for life at the time. Should we prepare children for life as it should be, or for life as it is?