This is a fun thread to follow. I think taken together you guys are really beginning to develop the rudiments of a satisfying explanation. The death penalty is a religious ritual, a sacrificial rite in our national church -- and it's about race and class. Perhaps the two sides can be combined as one: the death penalty allows the nation (and especially its whiter, richer half) to express and purge all its most fundamental and forbidden hatreds. It is satisfying because it expresses them directly at its objects and with horrible violence. And it it at the same time obfuscatory because it doesn't conceive of its objects in social terms, but as exceptional monsters. In that way, it's pure religion: it tells the truth in inverted form. It allows emotional connection while clouding the social truth.
Oscar Wilde once said it was easy to be honest so long as you were wearing a mask. Perhaps that also works in reverse: it's easy to be honest towards people if you put a mask on them.
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com