Communism

Paul Prescod paul at prescod.net
Sat Jun 29 18:34:38 PDT 2002


billbartlett at dodo.com.au wrote:
>
> At 10:37 AM -0700 29/6/02, Paul Prescod wrote:
>
> >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.

I did not use the word vengence nor refer to the idea. You introduced that concept. Here's what I said:


> we still need a model for removing dangerous people
> from society so that they do not harm the rest of us.


> Though I wish you'd make up your mind whether it was a compelling
> motivation or a straw man.

Straw man. I didn't mention vengence.


> 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.

If you read what I wrote you'll see that the second motivation is protecting society from the Manson family. The third motivation is making it so that killing somebody has consequences.


>
> 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?

What if with my own hands I build a new kind of computer from parts I find in dumps over six years and my neighbour covets it?


> Jealosy and hatred are of course emotions, which cannot be dealt
> with legally in any case.

Jealosy and hatred are two emotions that cause people to commit violence. If there are no consequences for violence then there will be more of it then if there are consequences.

Paul Prescod



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