Quote by Derick Jensen.
What are ILP members opinion on this?
I think that it is true – but backwards.
I think it tends to be more about proportion. That is, when someone higher in the hierarchy commits an act of violence on a member below them, their punishment is much, much lighter. However, when a member that is on the lower end of the scale commits an act of violence on someone higher, the punishment will be at least equal in measure to the crime, if not more-so.
However, as a society becomes more civilized, the proportions approach equal. There will always be that distinction, no doubt. But in a proto-civilized situation or something like a Nietzschean wet-dream where those higher on the hierarchy can commits an act of violence on a lower member they are absolutely unpunished.
So it becomes an issue of rights and rank, anyways.
So what if one has more rights than another to do harm?
One still has more force than another and more control than another through money and through ownership; as soon as someone violates this principal dogma, they will emediately become a punishable criminal.
In the rich nations we see the finality of submission to a heirarchy and that alone is why it has become less violent. The violence would all begin again ten-fold of the dogmas of money and ownership were not submitted to by all ones living within that nation.
Or does punishment become more efficient - more all pervasive - check Foucault
Off topic musings…
I wonder about this looking, for example, at the massively disproportionate number of blacks in jail in the states for example - I wonder is this something the founding fathers would have delighted in back in the eighteenth century?
Further - are you implying that societies become more civilized with time - I’m not sure this is automatic - and there sure have been some major reverses - from the Nazis through to we’ll say Iraq right now or Rwanda.
As for Nietzsche he had his macho/aristocratic moments but his Genealogical approach to history was an honest one and one of his better insights
brocku.ca/english/courses/4F70/geneal.html
kp
Those of us who live(d) around ‘blacks’ know why that figure is…
When you go to T Jefferson for blacks, the very first thing to tell him is the police used automatic weapons and a helicopter to capture the ‘black’ man running.
He’ll fall over long dead before you get to ‘black’.
The higher the complexity the more pervasive things become.
I can agree with that sentiment.
Note:
Beyond Krossie I can’t agree with anyone else in this thread.
Everybody knows that the upper citizens of any given nation can cheat many forms of law. Pity the poor man who is unable to fight because of all the bastards that surround him with their moral lies.
Makes sense. A “nobody” being killed doesn’t come across as bad as a “somebody” being killed in the media.
[b]Exactly.
The yuppie media super information highway age.[/b]