Taking Out the Criminal Garbage
The only way to solve crime is help people understand that criminals are human.
When we recognize that all of us who think ourselves superior to others, are delusional, that the nicest guy in town can become a Nazi overnight, we prevail. Then, we can solve not just crime, but every dilemna based on the foundation of delusion of “Us versus Them”. Almost every problem has a solution and the solution is always starting from common ground. It applies from the guy who goes five miles over the speed limit, to the guy who just pocketed $ten million for profitable strip mining in a third world nation.
This is not a treatise to coddle criminals, but only to help us find our humanity in order to reveal and uncover the humanity of criminals. So long as they perceive we are hostile to them, for what possible reason would they reform, or think better of outsiders?
What Christ taught was completely revolutionary in that he told people to show compassion to all living things, and to not assume any of us are above sin. However revolutionary, and convulutionary, religion has distorted this message, it is still the truth nonetheless. It is true for the Atheist, the pope, and every living thing. We all mess up, just some more than others.
Only when we know we are one, can we begin to hope to find unity and strive for harmony. This applies not just too human society, but also to natural society, which to us appears chaotic, but has a natural order that has created interdependent intelligent life forms for billions of years.
Statistics have shown that giving inmate’s responsibility, even if it is to a plant, encourages them to care. Allowing them to help dogs, and other pets, also increases their compassion. It teaches that they can be appreciated. They can view themselves as humans, and not as scum, scorned by other humans. Statistics also prove that appointing any amount of “authority” in a hierarchy, results in almost instantaneous corruption of that authority. Even with very small children, if you tell the brown eyed group they have to manage the blue eyed group; in almost no time at all you have conflicts, prejudice, hostility, resentment, and eventually violence.
Solutions based remedy for criminal behavior then must always include a starting point of common reference. Both inmate and compassionate citizen must see eye to eye, not eye for an eye. We both are human. We both feel pain. We both can know joy. We both can appreciate sky, tree, freedom, lakes, or any natural thing that we share. From this common reference can come the understanding that in our lives each of us has hurt others, and each of us have done worthwhile things for others. Except in the extreme case of a raging psychopath, or sociopath, as they are more correctly called, this approach is practical, low cost, and effective.
A second and critical part of this approach is to recognize that most drug related crime is due to someone seeking to self medicate, numb the pain, or replace it with artificial euphoria. When we see that most of us do the same with thousands of prescription drugs, (more every single day) and some with caffeine, alcohol, or nicotine, we can recognize our mutual need for a world more aligned with appreciating natural “highs” over self medicated, or artificial ones, that merely mask alienation and pain. The exact same kind of self medicating is done with over-eating, gambling, sex addiction, shopping, and more. Anything you rely upon as an escape is to fill the hole in your soul due to an alienating and troubled world, can be called an “opiate” of the masses.
The ultimate crime is the destruction of our living planet. We are suffering from it, because just like our over-stuffed prisons, we are alienated from our true and best selves. The confined will tell you “I am not a criminal.” They will not be lying, no matter what the court records say. She, or he, will truly believe that he, or she, is “not a crook.” The rest of us; confined or not, will tell you we love the natural world, but will continue to consume, discard, mine and produce plastic, poisons, and pollution. We accept in our air, water, soil, and food production everyday objects that appear like magic on store shelves. We do NOT want to know the cost of how they got there. We do NOT want to know, even more fervently, where they go when we discard them, and the externalized costs to all life. We are eager to believe those profiting from severe pollution, because they now convince us all their motives are green. We love that!
The destruction and imbalance of societal harmony, both internally and externally, are traced to the same cause: alienation. We live indoors, and we choose to believe we are the best animal on earth, although we are the most destructive animals on earth. We waste resources on a massive scale, in effect stealing from the future and stealing the habitats of other living “resources.” We sublimate this unpleasantness, and stuff it down, smother it with meds, and fast food, tune into our media “connections.” and tune out reality of how horrible famine, drought, severe weather, dying cubs, and extinction really are. Surely, we are not criminals, just because we break a few “natural” laws. But owning it, gives us, and all criminals, the power to stop it.
Guilt does not help at all, so don’t bother feeling guilty. Instead, feel proud and happy to take a breath of fresh air, drink pure water, and eat nutritious foods, (if you can find any of these things) and give yourself a lot of credit for having the courage to accept the truth.
Like prison inmates we will all deny we are the destructive ones. If you find yourself pointing a finger at another, you are still in denial. Change only the things which you can control, and let others worry about what they can control. We all need one another, there are no good or bad humans, there are no good or bad plants and animals, there are no good and bad, microbes, fungi, or bacteria, because all bring life and death in a cycle called the biosphere. The only exceptions to this natural order are unbalanced concentrations of runaway garbage, insanity, and war. This is the source of all criminality. And yes I know a monkey will steal bananas from other monkeys, but their justice and socialization solutions are usually swift, just, and sane.
Start with common ground, and realize especially in an election year, that anyone throwing dirt is losing ground. Our soils are depleted enough, it’s time to separate the garbage (toxic) from the nutrients.
