An eye for an eye?
An eye for an eye is such a powerful idea, and for most of human history it was accepted logic, a reasonable and proportional justice. Surprisingly it was a step forward in morality at the time from horrific torture then death to merely horrible dis-figuration, just re-balancing a wrong with a wrong was an act of forgiveness. It took the idea that such a policy would leave the world blind to change people's mind, to act as a counter argument to what was such a reasonable idea to many and still is, we want bad people to get their karma or a more immediate punishment whether incarceration or fines and supervision. Though punishment stopped being the policy of most civilized government a long time ago, the focus instead is on reform, because bad people are expensive and reformed people are cheap if you are skeptical (or out of compassion and hope if you naive like me).
However economics is not the only reason to do so, it is just the unarguable one, if you are going to lock up everyone forever the moment that there is even a risk that someone would do anything bad, you could but everyone would either be in prison or guarding those people. It is estimated that the average person breaks the law twenty times a day, not in a bank robbery way but minor unlawful ways, bad parking, littering, trespass, jay walking and a hundred other technical violations. There is a spectrum, and I know no one who has not made a poor decision (or many times in my case) and if I had to pay for every mistake, I would be in debt long past my death, so I am glad that I get to wake up with a blank sheet and start again.
That is the hope for all of us, to start again, to do better, it is the starting point that should drive our action when dealing with bad actors and those that do harm. Though hope for someone who had done you evil is difficult, maybe even harder than forgiveness, at least it has a benefit to the survivor, it helps them to drop the negative emotions and feeling, they get to move past the hate and fear. Forgiveness gives you the power to let go of fear, and not be controlled by it, to rise above it. Hope is different, to hope for good outcomes for that person, to hope that they can do good, to contribute to society and be of benefit to those around them, that is hard, especially if you are living with the consequences of their actions. You can not force or require someone to give up their righteous anger, you can not argue some one down, you can only give it to them as an option and point out that it is for their benefit to move to a position of love and meaning.
Which is not to say that society should not be protected from those people who are violent and an active danger, there are people who are so broken that they need to be prevented from causing further harm, they are dangerous and can never be released. However without exception these are the fringe, they have life situation that you would not wish on anyone, even these dangerous people, prison is not the same as torture or execution, it protects society whereas the latter dishonours society and brings shame on a nation, if a cat spits at you, you only dehumanise yourself by spitting back. You drop down to their level rather than hoping for them to rise up to yours, and those who do not, is pity not the better response than punishment. Prison should be places of safety (for society and inmates) where people are healed and learn to have real human relationships with responsibility, judgment and decision making because those are the skills that we all need, and perhaps we would have less people going to prison if we could teach these skills earlier in life.
These are the decisions we all face, do we want to operate from a place of love and forgiveness, or from fear and punishment. Do we want to make others feel as bad as us, that is what an eye for an eye means, which would only work in a world of good people who think that they are getting what they deserve. In a world of fear what we fear is that there is evil and we are good only because of the fear of punishment, that is the rational of fear, we punish the bad with bad things to make them good. Has that ever worked, punishment is far more likely to produce resentment, anger and more of the bad actions that we wanted to avoid in the first place, that is why operating from a place of fear is a bad idea.
Through it is easier said than done even for the individual, the heat of fear and anger is powerful, it can last for the rest of your life if you allow it, and I would certainly not critise anyone who is going through it, it is your life, story and issue. If you feel that anger without any negative consequences for you, I would not even dream of asking you to give it up, if it gave your life meaning, drive and purpose, that is your right, and I would do the right thing and leave it alone. It is up to you to live with your thoughts and actions, though if you are devastated by what has happened to you, if you are stuck in a loop, it might be worth imagining what your life would be like if you could let that fear and anger go, if you could find some meaning for you (not an equal swap for what you lost but a small little glimmer of hope) in what happened.
Whilst it is difficult for the individual it is even harder for a society, when anger is loose in a community it is the crowd that dominates, it amplifies the emotion. A concert where the whole audience loves the performer, have gathered to honour that love and has created a united love is an incredible experience. The opposite, when the crowd turns, it is fear that is magnified, it is whipped into an inferno of hate and anger, that can rip through a city, rioting, looting, it creates disorder out of proportion to the original trigger event however wrong it was, that anger is a fire that can destroy love.
How do we stop that, how can love exist in such a vacuum of reason, where the fear is rampant and out of control, where people are acting out thinking or reference to love, in what is the emotional equivalent of pepper spray. Some days my only hope, is that just as how fear is contagious so is love, one act, one flower in the turret of a tank, one person who is prepared to say stop, there is a powerful alternative and there is because love is the turtle and hate is the hare, and we are here for the long race, the human race and we will survive.
What is always necessary is for the individual to say no to fear, to start listening with an open heart, to know that all bad action comes from fear and anger, and the more justification someone has to be anger, the more powerful is their love as an unarguable example of goodness, of the better path, nothing can compare to a mother's loss or compassion, they are both beyond my personal understanding or comprehension and yet I get to recognise, value and listen to them. I know that their loss hurt me and that their compassion inspire me, they are the ones that ultimate bring peace to the world, and when they give up their anger and can move to compassion, I can not argue against their decision.
