Friday 27 April 2007

A simple truth: prison works

(Ed: I especially like the quote at the end of this piece: "to base an argument on the desire to be seen as virtuous, is not itself virtuous. On the contrary, it is nothing but vanity." Priceless!)

[...] He [Charles Murray] pointed out that the vast majority of crimes of robbery and violence are carried out by young men in deprived areas against others in their local community. "In England," he declared, "your safety is contingent on your income." He's right. The least well-off can not afford to secure their persons by moving around only in private transport, or their homes by elaborate security systems. Dr Dalrymple added the observation that: "If my home is burgled and my visible possessions are stolen, then I have lost about 5 per cent of my wealth. If a poor family's home is ransacked in the same way, then they lose everything they have."

Juliet Lyon countered with the statement that, "This divide between victims and offenders is a false and unhelpful one." I am not sure if she meant by this that many victims may themselves also be offenders, or that those who commit crimes are in a general sense victims of society. Whatever she meant, it was a remark which underlines the way in which the philosophy of so-called "liberals" has become completely detached from ideas of right and wrong, which are still held by the great majority of the general public. Read more

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Q
Wow – I never thought of it like that – far from being compassionate, these guys are vain and the effect on the poor is far from gentle and kind – mind, these are the kind of guys that live in the posh part of town and don’t have to live with the consequences
A
Got it in one – their image among their own set is more important than the welfare of the poor, and it is the same with theology.
Q
So ideas like substitution, punishment and Hell are bad for the Church’s image and whether or not such ideas are true are not is of no importance
A
But if they are true, to suppress them isn’t exactly in the interests of those in danger of Hell – I mean the guys in First Thessalonians 1:10 had obviously been told about the wrath to come and made a sensible response.
Q
So if preachers deny these things, people won’t be aware of danger
A
And the reason the preachers deny these things is that they are concerned about their image among their peers
Q
That is soOh gross – I mean these guys are so sick!!
A
There you go then – just like the secular élite – their steadfast resolve not locking up a handful of nasty people, means that the decent majority in some sink estates is effectively locked up in their own homes
Q
Teenagers openly steal from the local cornershop, two fingers raised defiantly at the CCTV camera, and at the local school kids get knifed and even shot, women are afraid to go out at night and the elderly are afraid to go out at all. It’s the people who try to do something about it are the ones who end up in court
A
Where politics and theology meet: First Peter 2:14
Q
That’s about rewarding the good and punishing the evil
A
Or rewarding the evil and punishing the good