America as a punishment and revenge society.

[Dash87]

Anyone else think this is what's rotting the apple from the core?

If you think about it, this is what's destroying this country. That is, the need to get vengeance for every little thing, whether it's personal vengeance or through the law.

Al Qaeda attacked us? Go kill em all! Bomb them until there's nothing left! Doesn't even matter if we're bombing Al Qaeda - just bomb someone!

Someone broke the law? Who cares how much mental help they might need, or how much we can actually rehabilitate them? Let them rot in jail!

This is also why the drug war is a miserable failure. Instead of getting people help for their addictions, we throw them in jail for years. That just makes them worse.

The core purpose of prisons in the US should be more oriented towards rehabilitation, not giving criminals a break between their next crime (time out, basically) and letting them meet more criminal contacts in jail.

We are a violent society because, at the core, we embrace violence and vengeance. It's only natural that our society and military would continue these norms. How can we ever be a peaceful society when we act like such hypocrites, embracing violence and vengeance as if this is the only true form of justice?

[clarice]

1. Question...which Country should we become more like? nt

[Dash87]

3. Not necessarily anyone. A cultural change is needed.

Maybe we can even be at the forefront - an example and inspiration for the world.

[clarice]

4. Maybe we can, I would like that...question..

When someone puts "Also, I just wanted to let you know that this is my signature.".......what does that mean. Newbie.

[Dash87]

7. I don't know. It's definitely NOT a signature, though.

[clarice]

8. The reason I ask...

Is because that is what it says at the bottom of your posts.

[Dash87]

10. It must be the little DU elves that are writing it there.

(I'm joking - if you go to my profile and look at the signature section, it shows you how to do it)

[clarice]

13. Little elves. lol

[noiretextatique]

19. how about Denmark?

perhaps we should be more like a civilized society.

[clarice]

35. Too cold. nt

[noiretextatique]

38. i thought so

[Uzair]

22. Canada

Next question.

[clarice]

36. too many Canadians. nt

[Egalitarian Thug]

24. America of forty years or so ago. We were making great strides toward the egalitarian society

we were told we were. Of course, this totally freaked out the authoritarians and they gave us reagan to undo what we had accomplished and set us back another hundred years.

[indepat]

31. How about any first-world country that is not soused/inebriated with a right-wing purulence

which permeates the whole of government and society.

[clarice]

37. Examples? nt

[noiretextatique]

39. Denmark and Canada

but you already know that.

[clarice]

41. No fighting,Curious, do you live in Canada? nt

[RandiFan1290]

43. Norway!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022880622

[clarice]

46. Beautiful place...been there. nt

[Ron Green]

2. Capitalism is at its core a violent system,

and we don't have much, in the way of social and cultural institutions, to keep a balance.

[clarice]

5. Alternatives? nt

[Ron Green]

17. I suggest workers' self-directed enterprises. See Richard Wolfe's

Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism as a starting place for discussion.

[clarice]

34. There are 3 things that bother me about Socialism

1. Usually has to be enforced at the point of a gun.
2. Removing the work /profit model usually begets scarcity of product and higher prices.
3. Removing the incentive for risk/reward denies a basic
fundamental human characteristic.

These are my OPINIONS no haters please.

[noiretextatique]

44. ayn rand....is that you?

[clarice]

45. No, I don't like Ayn Rand. I said "no fighting".nt

[HangOnKids]

48. HaHaHaHaHa

This thread is very very revealing. Keep going clarice!

[clarice]

49. It's 12:30 central....shouldn't you be in school? nt

[HangOnKids]

52. HaHaHaHaHa

Such a comic!

[noiretextatique]

50. ok ayn: what "human characteristic"

is denied by removing the risk/reward incentive?

[clarice]

51. You don't seem like a nice person, goodbye. nt

[HangOnKids]

53. But YOU are just a GEM!

Are you feeling the love?

[indepat]

54. Laizze-faire governance is the real culprit, when the extreme far-right branch of our effectively

one-party system controls the national agenda and plays as if the almost exclusive purpose of government is to allow vulture capitalism to run amok unfettered by either governmental oversight, regulation, or control. Add heavy subsidization by governmental largess and little taxation and being allowed to operate with only a modicum of concern for the environment and you have what we've gotten.

[datasuspect]

6. been that way for a while

used to be a lot worse from i hear tell.

[L0oniX]

9. Charges and or case dropped & mugshot remains ...is another example.

[G_j]

11. the three Rs

Revenge, Retribution & Retaliation..

[MindPilot]

12. I agree completely.

Unfortunately the subject doesn't get near the attention it deserves.

[Comrade Grumpy]

14. Yes. There is a reason the US is the world's leading jailer.

And I don't think it's because we're so much worse than everyone else. We just like punishing people.

[HughBeaumont]

15. Trapitalism is worse than punishment; it's herd culling.

Elimination from productivity, usually through no fault of the victim. Our safety net is a joke and our human rights are laughed at. Our government is at the complete behest of the wealthy and the corporations.

[Egalitarian Thug]

16. K&R This and compulsive consumption of television. n/t

[HiPointDem]

18. america is the leading edge of capitalism, that's why.

[cigsandcoffee]

20. Would you like to see George Zimmerman in jail or rehab? n/t

[DonCoquixote]

26. how about

working to fix things, not for a corporation, but picking trash and painting walls.

[cigsandcoffee]

28. I think you're tilting at windmills there. n/t

[WinkyDink]

21. I think we've been a desperately sick nation since 11/22/63. And not just because of JFK:

People sometimes forget that entire families watched together as Lee Harvey Oswald, human being, was MURDERED ON LIVE TELEVISION.

The nation watched a man get MURDERED (the Zapruder film would be unavailable for a decade).

[Uzair]

23. Michael Moore calls it "the me society"

It's all about ME ME ME. Nobody actually cares about anyone else. I got mine, you get yours. That's the real cultural problem, this idiotic notion that a society can be built by everybody fending for themselves, this "individualism" and "free spirit" nonsense.

[dawg]

25. We should find out who is responsible for making our culture like this ...

and make them pay!!!

[MrSlayer]

27. No. What's rotting the apple is the union busting and lack of jobs.

Desperation and lack of hope lead to violence.

I don't have a problem with punishing people that deserve it.

[Pragdem]

29. I'm against the Drug War. It is the only policy disagreement I have with this administration.

We need to free up that prison space for violent criminals.

[Puzzledtraveller]

30. All humans are violent

How else did we get here?

[nebenaube]

32. It's more then that

it's make-believe addictions and make-believe consequences that were created to debase and destabilize our country. The American pothead is no different the nazi-era Jew.

[felix_numinous]

33. Those that want a theocracy

push for punishment and revenge, it is the way of the old testament (not that I'm an expert). The religious right have damaged this country deeply by their willful ignorance and resistance to previous ideas of justice, law and order. Their interpretation of holy text do not honor forgiveness, humility or tolerance.

There have been many threads on the subject of sociopathy, authoritarianism and dominionism in this country--they are all related, and IMHO a social disease that has challenged this country like never before.

Not only do we need a separation of church with state, but with military, corporate and banking systems.

Oh I don't agree that 'WE' are a violent society--but that we live in a violent over-culture. We are mostly good people, living in very hard times. Just in case you thought I was a doom and gloomy kind of person

[Rex]

40. The real problem is living in a country that is never wrong.

Also we never take responsiblity for the crimes we cause.

[Nye Bevan]

42. There are plenty of sociopaths who only refrain from crime because of the threat of punishment.

Should crooked banksters be punished?

[olddots]

47. America has been about simple solutions in a complex world

The ignorance here is based on convenience not poverty . We are the most entertained country in the world and punishment and revenge are entertainment for simplistic turd maggots .

[Orsino]

55. Because the arena is not yet legal.

We get our manufactured drama and catharsis third-hand.