Trends in Brutality: Where Is Our Civilization Going?
This morning I happened to see an interview with the spokesperson for Amnesty International whose focus is abolishing the death penalty. No real surprises here, though perhaps a representation of today’s troubled times:
• Over the last 50 years, the percentage of countries that execute people has fallen from 85% to 15%, a considerable drop, one that would be expected as our civilization continues to work itself out of the Dark Ages.
• Over the last 10 years, however, there has been no further progress, and a significant increase in rate by which these 15% carry out the punishment.
The cause of the rise? One might speculate that it’s the same zeitgeist of hatred and fear that’s propelling the candidacy of Donald Trump. I’d be interested in other guesses.
I once saw a documentary about the death penalty. It may have been a British film crew that was looking into the various ways the State has and is presently executing people. They were trying to find something that was not “cruel and inhumane” After eliminating everything in common use today they did find one “viable” possibility.
Not stopping there they went on to describe what was possible and poll people to discover the general opinion.
It seems that capital punishment has a double standard. We want to make ourselves feel somehow like we are doing the right thing… but we actually want the convicted to suffer. Sadly we can’t seem to talk about that part of our nature.
There is no question in my mind whatsoever that the death penalty brings out the very worst in our species.