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Buddhism and Extreme Violence countries and gangs and death penalty.
StoicBuddhistAlex
Veteran
This a documentary of the violence in central America. Im from El Salvador wich is almost the same or worst than Guatemala.
What would be the buddhist solution? Most people is saying that the death penalty is the solution.
What would be the buddhist solution? Most people is saying that the death penalty is the solution.
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The long-term Buddhist solution would be to support economic development in Central America, democratization (complicated) and land reform. Too bad popular presidential candidates back in the 1950's who were keen on land reform and bringing a dignified and decent life to all weren't allowed to take office.
At the moment all criminalizty is raising plus the narco war.
Really dosent seem to be any hope in horizon but to become some sort of somalia
Albert Camus' "Reflections on the Guillotine" (in the book Resistance, Rebellion and Death) >>> @tmottes - what you mentioned is one of his arguments against the DP
George Orwell's brief essay/portrait, "A Hanging."
What I've never understood is, where does all the demand for drugs come from in the US, that is feeding all this violence and corruption in Mexico and Central America?
But it's not just drugs and gang violence. I don't know about Central America, but in Ecuador it's IMF policy. After the IMF austerity programs were imposed, and shortly thereafter, "dollarization" of the currency, things really went downhill. Tens of thousands of people left to work illegally in the US and Spain because the job market shrank, but also the government no longer had the money to pay teachers and other gov't employees. Due to the desperate straits, petty crime skyrocketed. Drug trafficking appeared, as a quick way to earn cash in a high unemployment environment. Ecuador is now at a stage that El Salvador and Guatemala were at in the 90''s, roughly.
The US controls the World Bank and the IMF. Protest WB and IMF policies, folks.
And it's only gotten worse. Now there's out-of-control gang activity. These people need to grasp the concept of law and order. The rule of law. Equal treatment under the law, no impunity for people with connections. No threatening the judges. I think imposing the death penalty would decimate the population. But something needs to be done to show the lawless classes that actions carry consequences. To merely imprison people who (in Guatemala's case, at least) ordered the murder of entire villages in an afternoon wouldn't work. El Salvador isn't even big enough in area to hold the number of prisons that would be required.
You know what they say about the Romanian king, Vlad Tepesh, aka Dracula? He would chop of the right hand of every thief. After a few months of this, he put a half-dozen solid gold goblets in the town square and left them there. Nobody ever touched them. Sometimes austere measures do deter crime.
Anyway, the point is that the situation in Alex's corner of the woods does not fit neatly into our theories of why people do crime. It's a completely different situation, a monstrous situation.
What makes no sense to me is: if we continue to force policies (or presidents) on these countries that only undermine prosperity and further poverty, how are they going to buy our products? If everyone is too poor to buy anything but cheap Chinese imports, what good are these destructive policies doing the US, in the long run? The same could be asked about current policies in the US toward its own citizens.
As for south america being our "customers", I think it's more profitable to the USA elites to make them resemble something more like a slave. They look at these supposedly "3rd world" countries purely as a number, which is how much profit they can make, and when it reaches 0 they'll finally leave the area alone and maybe let them get on with their lives.
It isn't that the self doesn't exist, but the manner in which it exists is very different from what we commonly take it to be (an independent, self-subsistent entity). In growing in the understanding of the inder-dependent nature of all selves, of all of reality, the nature of our action changes. Just as the manner in which the self exists is different from what we commonly think, so the nature of action is different.
Buddhism is not quietism, the belief that one need do nothing. This ends up becoming a kind of passive nihilism. Buddhism is about wisdom AND compassion, which are really just two sides of the same coin-- they are not two separate things.
So yes, one just lets things be, and yet, at the same time, we act in compassion towards one another. There's letting things be in a samsaric way (apathy) and there is letting things be in the awakened way, the selfless outpouring of compassion, but not clinging to its results.
So its tricky business, all this "let it be" stuff. I hope this makes sense, @cabossimn
As for suggestions as to how to address all the violent crime right now, that's difficult. Guatemala tried setting up a human rights office to deal with not gang violence, but the army and oligarchy carrying out extrajudicial killings, and my impression is that it didn't work out. The human rights ombudsmen were threatened, and I think (I didn't follow it to the end) it all fell apart.
Your concern is mainly the gang activity, is that right? Well, I'll venture a controversial Buddhist opinion. In Mahayana Buddhism we are allowed to break vows, even the 1st precept (against killing) if it's for a higher good, meaning if it helps saves countless lives. So maybe the death penalty is the best course of action. This is an extreme situation you've presented us with, and the Secondary Bodhisattva Vows, the ones that require breaking the precepts in extreme and extraordinary situations, are designed for precisely that.
So now that I've stuck my neck out and said that, let the opinions fly.
IMO, gang violence is simply the method by which gangs, or organized groups that are involved in illegal activity, resolve their differences between each other. They can't take their grievances to court, so they use violence to settle things.
Gangs form because of an actual or perceived inequality in the distribution of wealth or as a player in an industry where there is a demand, but it has been made illegal. It is a chance (very small) for those with little opportunity/education/privilege to achieve their desires. It also tends to be a slave/indentured servant situation, as once you are in there is very little opportunity to leave.
Education, legalization, and recovery programs are needed. The problem is the powers in be, like it this way and there is no motivation to change.
Legalization of what, is needed?
Where do you live, btw? Are you in Central America?
This is all so sad and outrageous. After posting on the "Occupy Wall Street" thread, and here, my thoughts turn to the fact that humankind has the ability to create heaven on earth. All of this degeneracy and exploitation doesn't need to exist. Yet here it is. What is so difficult about dedicating oneself to the common good? *sighhh* :' (