Subject: Abolishing the death penalty
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X-Comment: The Transnational Radical Party List
To all members of the Transnational Radical Party:
Regarding the abolition of the death penalty:
I have heard no convincing arguments that capital punishment is NOT an
effective deterrent against anti-social behavior.
The American philosopher Mark Taylor offers an interesting insight into why we
might believe that capital (and for that matter, corporal) punishment offers
an effective deterrent: it is the chosen means of social control for
criminals themselves.
Force is a language universally understood by those who forsake the civilized
mores of society. When a criminal is offended or hurt by another, he realizes
that the most effective way to prevent the same from re-occurring is to
convince the offender that whatever advantage or pleasure was gained by
committing the offense will be slight in comparison to retribution.
Likewise, this simple truth is recognized by people of good will. It is not
uncivilized or barbaric to want peace in society. Because capital punishment
will provide effective deterrence to criminal behavior, it will ultimately aid
in the goal of peace. To be sure, inflicting death on another human being is a
grave matter.
But the point of these few paragraphs is not to dismiss capital punishment as
an easy or obvious choice, but only to remind the wealthy, comfortable members
of the New (bourgeois) Left that crime is real for those who live in
high-crime (usually urban) areas. And the only thing "uncivilized" or
"irrational" about the notion of capital punishment is how far its opponents
are willing to go to protect criminals and punish law-abiding citizens in the
name of "decency".
Sincerely,
Daniel A. Dorry, Esq.
