Prisons, prisons
A line from one of Alterman's correspondents:
"One thing striking about the righties' responses though: is it me or do you notice the same underlying assumption that people in any kind of a jail apparently deserve to be there? The quick assumption of guilt that comes with the fact of incarceration? Didn't it used to be one of the core tenets of conservatism to be skeptical of state power, not enthralled by the infallibility of it?"
It doesn't seem a particularly strong defence for the Americans to say they are not as bad as Saddam's psychopathic sons. It's a stronger defence, I think, to say Abu Ghraib is not much worse than a lot of American prisons.
Why should Iraqis who are suspected, rightly or wrongly, of resisting democracy by force, be treated any better than U.S. citizens in U.S. prisons?
Of course, this mis-states the situation. Abu Ghraib, like most of the world's prisons, has shown primarily public sector abuse--carried out by the authorities. American prisons, one gathers, are characterized more by private-sector abuse. The gangs are in charge, and they commit some blood-curdling acts, including rape and murder. This is generally known, yet no one to speak of is outraged. (See Instapundit).
The U.S. has a higher proportion of its population in prison than any country on earth. It passed Russia some years ago. A significant number of people work in prisons in the U.S. (Naomi Klein gives this whole thing the left-wing or even Marxist slant--successful capitalism is creating a growing lower class, moving been dead-end jobs and crime, or joining the military. She touches briefly on the fact that if the U.S. prison population were as low as in European countries, the unemployment rate might be as high as in those countries).
Why does the U.S. differ from other countries in this respect? I don't know, but here goes a theory. Americans think of life as highly competitive and individualistic. As Tocqueville said so long ago, the intense struggle for small gains, or none, often casts a shadow of melancholy over the hard-working American ant. Why not be a grasshopper? Why not give up? Part of the answer is that there are terrible consequences to crossing the line and committing certain crimes. There almost have to be crack downs from time to time, such as the War on Drugs, and even the War on Porn, to satisfy everyone.
The contemplation of people suffering in prison can yield a kind of Lucretian pleasure. Look at all the miserable people--what a relief I'm not one of them. There's also a strong sense of justice--wrongdoers deserve punishment. Even if the losers are primarily unlucky, bad luck can be seen as the semi-divine voice of Nature. (Casinos and lotteries--another whole story).
Detective stories don't teach that crime is wrong, period--they teach that even intelligent criminals will probably get caught. Honesty, as Franklin said, is the best policy--not best pure and simple.
It's cynical and nasty, but perhaps not entirely false, to say the prisoners at Abu Ghaid have had a taste of the American way of life.
UPDATE: See more in TNR Online (via Slate).
Also a related post here on The Corner and another here at Tech Central Station (via Instapundit).
|
