William Lear wrote:
> 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.
Assuming that support for the death penalty really is more prevalent
among the working class, I'd say it's simply a function of their being
exploited. Bitterness comes from a lack of diversions and
satisfactions in life (speaking from my own personal experience here),
and revenge fantasies can discharge some bile -- or at least seem to.
The awareness of one's contingency to and dependence on society
probably plays a role as well; the thought of someone so unnecessary
and so dependent that they have to be killed may provide some perverse
comfort to those a paycheck away from being on the street.
--
Curtiss