BYE BYE PUNISHMENT

I have never really understood the concept of Punishment...the infliction of pain and suffering.

When I see a parent punishing a child for "not doing what you're supposed to do or what you were told to do", it always seems animalistic, brutish, cruel, mindless, to me. It is not a question of whether a parent has a right to punish. No one has the right to inflict pain and suffering on another. Where conceivably does that so-called right come from? We are sovereign beings. We are not Gods and subjects. We are not unequal masters and slaves. We are sovereign beings.

And the same holds true for society. It, too, has no legitimate right to punish. It has a certain authority, as I shall mention in a moment, but not to inflict pain and suffering.

It is argued that a child learns from punishment, that a criminal learns from punishment. and that justifies its use. No. Aside from the extremely questionable hypothesis that pain and suffering are educators, even if they were, it would not sanction cruel punishment. It is neither wise nor appropriate to use the very same techniques that we rush to punish others for. What punishment "teaches", if anything at all, is that the infliction of pain and suffering is a valid way to achieve goals. The very reverse, I presume, of what ought to be taught.

It is argued that punishment deters future bad behavior. Not a shred of reliable evidence to support that cklaim. Quite the reverse. Punishment promotes fear, anger, separation...all of which spur bad behavior.

It is argued that justice legitimatizes punishment. No. Justice legitimatizes redress... having the transgressor make his victim whole again, and compensating the victim for irreplaceable losses. The Biblical rule "If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep" is on the track of justice. Perhaps the "extra" animals were meant to compensate the victim for the loss of use of his animal during the time it was taken.

Society does have the authority to protect its members from physical force. That authority emanates from our right to life...our right to live free from force. That societal authority sanctions imprisonment, not as punishment but as protection.

Voltaire said "Fear follows crime and is its punishment". That is what the parent ought teach the child: Doing bad things have their own built-in consequences. Identify for the child what are the specific inescapable negative consequences of lying, stealing, etc. Call them nature's punishment, if you must...I call it education. Those lessons may well serve the child for a lifetime.