As someone whose experience of corporal punishment
Submitted by Forgiven on February 24 2002 19:44:54
In reply to Re: Humbug submitted by Dakota on February 24 2002 18:16:26
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was positive - after the most extreme application (nothing unreasonable) I calmed down and started to behave - age 10/11. Whilst it may be that in some circumstances there is an alternative to violence, in others it is the best solution. The prisons are a lot fuller these days than in the days of the depression or the late nineteenth century. This is not because the poor have got any poorer or more deprived. Yes - this may well apply to personal relations in a structured, safe, policed, and generally 'nice' environment. It is simply not true in a state of anarchy where life is 'nasty, brutish and short'. OK - I'm being contrary - but MLK is not a saint in my eyes; his adulterous lifestyle clearly indicates that he'd got something badly wrong. And I am a strong opponent of 'civil disobedience'; it is still 'disobedience' - i.e. rebellion against lawful authority. Just remember - the American revolution cost African Americans a extra 30 years of slavery - which was abolished in the British Empire in 1832..... |
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