[lbo-talk] A Note on the Middle 75%

Somebody Somebody philos_case at yahoo.com
Fri Nov 18 22:43:31 PST 2011


But Doug, prisons are a relatively recent thing. Humanity got along just fine without them before. I mean there are plenty of robbers, and murderers, and rapists who never spend a day in prison...and things keep chugging along.

Joanna

What specific systems of law and punishment do you have in mind here? Ancient Athens sentenced people to be stoned to death, thrown off cliffs, and bound on stakes until dead, in addition of course to compulsory suicide. Violent punishments were always the flip side in pre-modern societies of more civilized measures like exile, confiscation of property, and ostracism. Did any pre-capitalist societies not make use of either confinement or violent punishment? Or is it that modern-day prisons are worse than torture and execution?



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list