>There are three motivations for having a criminal justice system. You've
>dismissed the least compelling of the three. In other words you put up a
>straw man and knocked it down.
But *you* put forward the argument I knocked down. Though I wish you'd make up your mind whether it was a compelling motivation or a straw man. If you want to put up the other two straw men/compelling motivations for having a criminal justice system, I'll attempt to knock them down too.
>The deranged "social condition" which gives rise to deranged people is
>called "life". Life is hard. Life may be harder in a capitalist system
>but it is nevertheless hard also in any utopian system you can imagine.
>Your wife falls in love with other people. Your father never really
>wanted you and doesn't love you. A reliance on back medication turns
>into an addiction. A freak accident removes your legs and leaves you
>incapable of playing the sport you love. Your uncle molested you as a
>child. LIFE IS HARD. Some people will be unhappy. Other people are just
>born jerks. Other people are clinically psychopathic. None of us are
>entirely rational.
So, when they tell me to "get a life", people are wishing ill of me? Bastards! ;-)
But seriously, you seem to be putting up another straw man - that not everyone will be deliriously happy in a utopian socialist system. I'm not going to fall into the trap of knocking it down this time, I will merely note that I never said socialism was utopia or that it was expected to solve every conceivable human problem.
>Greed, jealousy and hatred are not minor problems that will be
>insignificant in a communist system. They are major problems that must
>be accounted for in any system.
These conditions are a natural part of human nature, it is true. Greed is in fact rational behaviour in an economic system based on insecurity and competitiveness. In a socialist system it would be regarded as deranged behaviour, though that isn't to say it would entirely cease to exist. But so what? If some poor bugger decided to eat too much, who does it hurt but him?
Jealosy and hatred are of course emotions, which cannot be dealt with legally in any case.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas