Sunday, August 23, 2015
Americans (from Sacramento) Do the Job, and: What to Do with Bad People?
by Tom Kando
On August 21, a terrorist tried to kill many people on the Thalys bullet train from Amsterdam to Paris. (See: Thalys Attack).
Amazingly, I relate to this event in two ways:
1. As it so happens, I have taken this train many times, It’s always a marvelous experience.
2. The terrorist’s attempt was foiled by three Americans (assisted by some other passengers, including Chris Norman, a British businessman). The Americans were Spencer Stone, an American Air Force serviceman, Alek Skarlatos, an Oregon National Guardsman, and Anthony Sadler. Both Stone and Sadler are from Sacramento. Sadler is a Sac State kinesiology student. So in this ever smaller world, this makes me proud about one of our students.
And one more thing:
As a criminologist, I have long pondered what would be the best punishment for people who have been very, very bad. For example ISIS, which beheads 80-year old museum curators, rapes 12-year old girls and says that this brings them closer to Allah, or mass murderers such as James Holmes (Colorado) and Anders Breivik (Norway), or any other monster (Eichmann, Hitler, Mengele, etc.).
Most people feel that such people should be executed, period. However, I feel that this is much too lenient. The problem with capital punishment is that it doesn’t teach you anything.
And by the way, this is the problem with any form of death. It’s too bad that dying cannot be a learning experience. Whether you die from a drug overdose, or you drown or die in a car crash because of carelessness and stupidity, or you get killed in a bar fight, this can never be a wake-up call to clean up your act, to be more careful next time.
For mass murderers and other evil doers, I feel that some form of torture would be more painful and more just. But I am not thinking of water boarding or any other physical torture used today or in the past. I am thinking of a much more cruel form of punishment: Condemn such monsters to having to listen to LECTURES for the rest of their lives.
For example, force them to listen to a professor - say, a professor of sociology - for many hours every single day, year after year, until they die of old age. This would force them to THINK about what they have done, till the end of their days.
©Tom Kando 2015
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12 comments:
"Tom Kando, I thought of you taking that train. It's so cool that 2 of the guys were local."
Thanks!
Brilliant idea, Tom!
Dear Tom, I share the Thalys experience with you. I have taken that train many
times and loved it. In general I love bullet trains far more than planes. So I try to imagine that I was there, near the toilette from where this half naked crazy young guy surfaced with guns. And I have no idea what I'd have done. I do have convictions that agree with what one of the American soldiers said: "Can't just sit there and watch it happen." But I don't know whether I'd have shit in my pants or not. So I feel guilty.
As for your brilliant idea of the ultimate punishment:
1. Very funny on the surface. Much more serious in the case of "banal" baddies.
2. But Hitler, Stalin,etc.and the likes would find great joy in being given the opportunity to argue their case!....for these guys, the only solution is the final one!
Csaba,
I appreciate that you appreciate my idea. You are right: my suggestion was meant to be funny, with a grain of truth, and absurd, all wrapped into one. You are right about the proverbial "Hitler" case. I was thinking the same thing. For some of these folks, intellectual arguments ad nauseam would be a pleasure...
Yes. Listening to on going lectures could be a great punishment. Great idea.
However, notice what Csaba says: some people might actually enjoy this, maybe?
Tom, Are you thinking of writing a proposal for a prison lecture position in your retirement?
Love this article, especially since I didn't know that 2 of the heroes were from Sacramento. Csaba's comment was great regarding what he might have done on the train. I'd like to think I'd have tried to do something, but probably would have also needed a change of underwear afterwards! Your tongue-in-cheek punishment was very clever, but you'd have to find a very, very boring professor to bring it up to the level of torture.
I Thank Gordon and Sharon for their funny comments. To Gordon: As a matter of fact, I did teach sociology to the inmates at the California State Prison in Vacaville. It was an exhilarating experience. Every Monday night, I spent three hours locked up with two dozen felons, many of them murderers, several who would be classified as “terrorists” today, being that one was a member of the Uruguayan Tupamaros and several were black panthers/black Muslims who had engaged in gun fights with police, etc. I suppose these prisoners were selected and given the right to take college level courses such as mine, due to their good behavior... They thoroughly enjoyed my classes, they were very rambunctious, they interrupted me incessantly. I did this for one semester. There was never any trouble, any threat to me. But this does shoot my theory, as the sociology lectures turned out to be a highly enjoyed reward for the prisoners, not a punishment...
Hello Tom,
I enjoyed it, and like to add some John R. boring macro economics lectures 202A, to
intensify the punishment also!
Right on Professor!
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