Death Penalty

William S. Lear rael at zopyra.com
Wed Mar 3 21:21:59 PST 1999


On Wednesday, March 3, 1999 at 21:39:02 (-0800) Max Sawicky writes:
>> [Yoshie wrote:]
>> I agree with you on everything you guys wrote. I just wonder why death
>> penalty seems to attract even some leftists in America. It's not the same
>> elsewhere, is it? The popularity of death penalty must be related to the
>> popularity of anti-abortion sentiments via
>> moralism/individualism/anti-hedonism routes.
>
>My impression is that very few on the U.S. left have
>any support for the death penalty. This dovetails
>with their absolutism on abortion and their general
>isolation from the working class.

The isolation does not follow from the dovetail. Another dovetail exists with the general population, the overwhelming majority of which, last I looked, supports the right to choice.


>To say it is "popular" is not quite apt. Like saying
>root canal is popular. It is seen as justified, if
>regrettable (for all the reasons raised).

I'm not sure I agree. I think there is a high degree of lust involved in the death penalty. Perhaps Yoshie is right dragging in anti-hedonism --- repressed sexuality leading to a twisted sexualization of state-sanctioned murder ... a collective rape fantasy?


>Nobody has responded to my query about why working
>people are more supportive of capital punishment than
>those w/higher income.

A wild guess: the working class is more imbued with the propaganda of hard-work individualism. Those at the top know better. When workies see murder, they think "There's someone not playing by the rules --- in a bad way". The leisure of the upper classes allows them some distance from the struggle, perhaps a recognition, however dimly, that the game really isn't that fair, hence the easier recognition of the the murderer as one of us.

I'm not sure I buy all that, though ... why don't you try rephrasing it? Higher income generally equals higher education. Apply the the transitive law and I think you've got an equation with a fairly obvious solution:

Wealth = Education (Greater wealth usually due to higher education)

Education = 1/Death (Education leads to opposition to death penalty)

or:

Wealth = Education = 1/Death

and by the transitive law:

Wealth = 1/Death

Needs more work, though.

Bill



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