Best Of

I am not a Buddhist, as in I've yet to commit to the Dharma, but few things upset me as much as the way society, generally reacts to the suffering of those who they deem deserve it. I often encounter footage of people, sometimes teenagers given life sentences, breaking down in tears and the most average people I walk past the street are cheering and celebrating. Now more and more states are loud about extending the death penalty for this and that and I can tell, after all the damage they do, people still yearn for more, like live tv entertainment executions. It is rather traumatic for me and such intense hatred often makes me lose my will to live.

A life behind bars is wasted. A life taken is wasted. Any family that person had is broken, torn apart. Any family they could've had is lost. If I die because of someone else's fault, how could such devastation honor my memory? They shouldn't remain a danger to others, of course, they should be properly rehabilitated, but I recognize no justice in making people suffer. If they come to regret what they did, they should be able to try and make up for it in some way. And if they don't come to regret it the justice system fails a purpose that is core to its existence as far as I'm concerned.

RobinH I think you make a very good point. Most people’s sense of outrage is more developed than their actual sense of justice, and that outrage spills over into anger and violent retribution. It is well known that people individually can be kind, sensitive, good-hearted, but as a mob can be much more volatile.

I think it’s very interesting with all the information coming to light from the Epstein files, that there has been a lot of outrage but very little actual consequence. It seems that in the structure of society today it is a lot more difficult for action to manifest than in the past. Reputational damage is about as far as it seems to go — I don’t think Deepak Chopra will be selling as many books.