My Manifesto: The Incoherent Ramblings of a Madman

Sometimes I wonder if people really can be rehabilitated. Violence or some kind of emotional trauma tend to cause a pre-disposition for a person to become a violent criminal - but violence or emotional trauma doesn't always lead to criminal behaviour, infact, often the contrary is true. A person who is heavily traumatised, may infact: regress into a child like behaviour; become very shy, timid, and submissive; and even withdraw from society altogether, admittingly not unlike some serial killers, but again not every shy timid withdrawn person goes on a depraved killing spree.

With violence or emotional trauma causing this dichotomy of events, would not the oppositte also be true? Being nice to a person, talking through problems with a person, "rehabilitating" a person, would there not be a dichotomy of outcomes from such a program? I know if I was talking through my problems with a person who didn't care to listen but was simply there because as a youth they felt that they had something to offer the world of counselling, not for the benefit of the counsellee, but so they could gain some self confidence and improve their self esteem (somewhat) by feeling good that they are "helping" less fortunate persons than themselves then I would feel more and more empty and depressed. Having a person "rehabilitate" or counsell you, in my opinion, and I stress this is purely my opinion, as I have nothing but what I perceive to be common sense, and (I hope) some empathetic understanding to back up anything I have said, would only work if you were convinced the person was there to help you - rather than to improve their self esteem, talk through their problems, or as a paid form of employment..

Rehabilitation is something I'm not sure can be achieved with all people - but at the same time, I'm sure some can be rehabilitated, because for every person out there who realises what most counsellors are about, there are at least five in blissful ignorance. And while rehabiliation has never properly been tried on a large scale, some would say never properly tried at all, I do believe it is heavily limited in it's effectiveness.

Jail is another issue. On a purely economical point of view, I feel that the death penalty is a much better solution than keeping someone for life in prison, but even the death penalty is costly with the amount of legal challenges the people are allowed. At the same time, if you kill a person right away, and it is the wrong person, then there is a major tragedy that I hope would play on the minds of those responsible for eternity - even if this is not the case, for the justice system is not about finding the truth: it is about finding someone to blame to make the victims families feel a sense of completeness; it is about making the public feel safer that someone else "bad" is off the streets; and it is about the employees of the justice system feeling better that they have made a difference to the world for the better.

As a form of punishment, isn't forcing a person to live like a caged animal, deprived of all human dignity, with the constant reminder of what they have committed plaguing their dreams, for a long time, much harsher than simply killing them? I believe it can be - but just as rehabilitation works for some and not others, so would a long time in prison. Before a person is going to be affected by remorse, then they must at least aknowledge they have done the crime, that the crime was wrong to do, and it must be a personalised crime - a nameless, faceless, victim will not achieve any remorse from most. To feel remorse, even with the aforementioned criterium in place, the person would have to be of sound mind. So what to do? I believe that if a person is shown to have remorse, then life in prison would be a far better punishment than any death penality - a death penalty to someone who is remorseful, may even be seen by them as a good thing. However, if the person can show no remorse for what they have done then forcing a person to be in jail for life is a very expensive exercise.....

Today was good. Call me crazy - but this time I'm not giving up :).

Y está con una observación absurda de la partida, algunas líneas escritas en un idioma extranjero que le hago una oferta toda la buena noche

And it is with an absurd observation of the game, some lines written in a foreign language that I do a supply all the good night to him

Somehow the entire meaning was lost in the translation - but then again, I am using a free online translator - can't expect something for nothing these days, even if the best things in life are free!