Change is scariest when you are comfortable… And we are way too comfortable.
I do not believe that I have to repeat nor indulge myself in the usual trope of capitalism bad, people comfortable, people lazy, people ungrateful, people ignorant, people bad, people stupid, people uneducated. Yes a lot of those would be true, but most of those are the fault of the system we have in place that instead of helping people be better, get better, help themselves, it keeps them in a spire of misery. Yes, the system is also created by humans, and not an unknown entity with immovable laws. The laws and systems we live under are movable and can change. Yet, this takes a lot of courage. Courage many do not have. And while my brief introduction would lead you to believe that this is due to comfort, that’s not the entire story. That’s just something to draw you into the rest of this ramble. The honest truth is that there’s a large portion of this problem that comes from fear of the unknown. Change, and more precisely systemic change is an unknown. It brings anxieties with it and a lot of unanswered questions. Yes, of course, we have the answer to a lot of things and we can learn a lot, have learned a lot, from what doesn’t work with the current system. But, corruption can always undermine changes. Because it would mean a blind trust that not just a system can change, but that people can also change. Something that is rather tough to sell to anyone. And while anecdotal evidence is out there, if you are to ask most people, they will tell you they do not believe a person can usually change for the better. And so we’ve arrived at the reason for this whole post… We’re NOT Ready for Progress…
Prisons shouldn’t exist. Yes, at all. Prisons do not solve problems. Prisons do not help people be better people. At best, prisons scare people into not wanting to comit other crimes. But most people that go through the prison system, usually, become repeat offenders. Why? Because it doesn’t solve any of the problems to begin with. And what’s worse, in some countries even after they serve their sentence those people get out with fewer rights and with fewer opportunities. Which is why they often become repeat offenders. Instead of rehabilitation, you get persecution once you have finished your sentence. If you are from the US of A, this just might be the case for you. But that isn’t to say that the rest of the world is doing a better job. While the nordic countries are getting as close as possible to what we should be doing, it’s not perfect either. Because either way, we do not fix the systemic issues that bring crime. These things are a innate failure of the system and we should be very unhappy about it. And if your prison system is for profit, you should be livid with rage, especially if the prisoners also work for pennies as slave labor.
Yes, personal responsibility is a thing, but unless you personally choose when and where and to whom you are born. Most of the things in your life are predetermined by the system. Meaning that any person is born to a predetermined set of options in their lifetime, as infinite as that might seem, it is quite restrictive. If you are born in a poor country, if you are born in a poor city, if you are born in a poor neighborhood but in a wealthy city, if you are born in the country side away from possibilities, these things predetermine most of your life. To get out of these situations in the current system necessitate an herculean effort. Whether it’s in terms of money, time spent doing things or just the mental pressure, there’s a lot hinging on you changing your life if you are born to struggle. Considering you can’t just move into a richer town or a richer country easily, and you can’t just meet the right person to give you a hand to help you pull yourself out poverty. Some of these things can be literally impossible. Pair that with poor education, lack of access, racism, xenophobia, abuse, an uncaring system, people’s disposition to not believe in change for good. And you have this whole disaster.
Which is why I believe prisons shouldn’t exist. It’s hypocritical. If we are to believe that most people are kind, caring, loving, compassionate, empathetic and good-willed, then we should believe not in punishment, but in rehabilitation and fixing the problems that cause crime to happen. And it would be great if we were to deal with those in the following order: poverty or badly paying jobs, corruption, lack of opportunity and mobility, lack of public transport, lack of mental health help and basically lack to a good living standard, affordable housing, affordable quality food and quality free time. These are the things we should actually focus on, rather than just punish people and believing in fairy tales that they might suddenly turn their lives around. It isn’t going to happen. Their circumstances didn’t change. The place they live in is the same, no matter how many years they spend behind bars, if you send them back into the same environment, with the same lack of everything, they are going to relapse, because we never really gave them a chance. And this is just one small example of a reflection of ourselves and how we see ourselves. We do not trust in ourselves to be good, decent people. And this shows in how we systematically think about crime in an archaic way. Basically shouting everyone is a criminal, everyone needs to be punished, everyone needs to suffer, and only a chose few deserve better. Which is ridiculous, not because it isn’t true, but because we’re punishing and dooming ourselves to suffer like we’re sado-masochistic freaks. My point is that in order for progress to be made we need to treat ourselves better believe that we deserve better, be better and believe that there’s better out there for us. Only once we do that we might have the courage to change and be the change we want to see in this world.