Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>It is easy to see that in such situation the most likely outcome is the
>'Hobbesian dilemma' - either a war of all against all, or a sovereign (law
>enforcement) stepping in to maintain peace law and order. So yes, it is sad
>that local law enforcement efforts concentrate mainly on controlling petty
>violations of everyday standards of conduct. OTOH, the absence of these
>petty law enforcement interventions would likely lead to even worse
>situation of chaos and war of all against all. (PS. I am reasonably sure
>that unlike John Thornton, I would not do very well in such a situation,
>thus I do not mind law enforcement that much, regardless of all its flaws).
>
>>From that point of view, the "thin blue line" shtick sounds paradoxically
>true. Law enforcement is the only thing that keeps a capitalism-engineered
>society from disintegrating into complete chaos and war of all against all.
>
You know Woj, it sounds more and more that this happens to be your
paranoid picture of the world, rather than a description of reality.
Most of what I'm hearing and most of what can be inferred from actual
evidence is that some people too poor to afford lawyers are being used
to grist the mill of the prison-industrial system, which provides
employment for ex-blue collar workers and needful terror for the rest of
the population.
This is not to say that there are not violent psychopaths who need to be isolated, just that they form a small fraction of those who are currently imprisoned.
As Clarence Darrow observed some time ago, a prison is more of an economic byproduct than a moral entity.
See http://www.bopsecrets.org/CF/darrow.htm
Joanna
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