Politically incorrect

I woke up one morning imagining the death sentence in new light. The philosophy of revenge by a society is one aspect of it. Added to this is another layer of cake.Embedded in the idea of a death sentence is the fact that as a society we can judge people as we please. We do this at a subtle and a more unconscious level on a daily basis but the idea of a death sentence is taking this subtle reaction to a whole new level where rather than just being a reaction it becomes condemnation. Having said that my reimagination of a death sentence was the fact that at some level it parallels a eugenic practise. Eugenics involves cleanising of a human population based upon certain desirable or undesirable traits as the case may be. The basis of the trait is that it can be transmitted genetically lending itself to propagating the trait through an entire race. The idea of eugenics is like throwing trash into the incenerator rather than recycling it. The law in instituting a death sentence decides to eliminate an undesirable member of society based on an act or certain qualities. While the law is neither based on genetics or is scientifically grounded, it is based on a reality which is constructed on the basis of what we as a society can and cannot tolerate. This isn’t to say that I emphasise the idea that individuals who commit grave crimes, as proscribed by the society, should roam free. It is to stress the point that at some level, the idea of ridding a society of such individuals sounds almost like a eugenic practise. If we think of eugenics as a deplorable idea I wish this way of rethinking the death sentence can make us evaluate our lives for whatever it is worth.

Much worse I believe is the idea in all of this that a bunch of law makers decide what is worth and what isn’t worth a death sentence. We have no basis to construct such a system but we draw our lines based on our unimaginative human mind. I think artists should rewrite the law. Perhaps it would have a sense of arbitrarness and a certain random quality about it that the system doesn’t feel like it condemn or judge people. But that is an unfair ideal because consistency or the yearning for it is a very desirable quality for any functioning society or for that matter any relationship between individuals.

My understanding of why we don’t need a death sentence in our society isn’t based on the fact that judgments are reversed in some situations since the victim is found to be innocent or the law was unjust under certain circumstances or for that matter evidence was fabricated in a case. Its based on the simple and rather naive desire for us to be a society that can let humans be humans. We make mistakes- intentionally or unintentionally, but regardless of what that mistake can be, I find it hard to think that it actually costs a life. I’m not talking about fringe cases such as serial killers or the like here. I’m in hazy territory when I get there so I’ll play it safe by talking about life as it bares itself to me everyday. I think most people who end up with a death sentence are worthy of redemption. Not in the eyes of the victims of the act, perhaps they are inconsolable. But it is wrong for us as a society to participate in the act of revenge. I wonder if we are consoled by the idea that justice in the form of a death sentence will be rendered in our favour if it came down to it.  The things in which we find a unity as a race is amusing!