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Punishment Freaks on MY PD?

Started by The Good Reverend Roger, November 08, 2010, 07:25:05 PM

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The Good Reverend Roger

Good afternoon, you evil orgasm badgers.

It's difficult to describe my loathing for certain points of view (though not necessarily the people that field them) that float around here once in a while.  Mostly, the idea that people deserve certain bad things that happen to them...Most recently, this Oakland business.

Fact is, we're all guilty of a lot.  Everyone is.  You can't go through life without being guilty of something.  Should everyone be punished for everything they are guilty of?  That's a question best left to philosophers and angry born again preachers, in my opinion.

Fact:  Your average working stiff IS a complacent boob that either nods in approval or just doesn't care when injustices are committed by the "government".  This is a combination of being told that people are bad and need a little punishing (Though not themselves, of course, their sins are small, unlike those people walking, who really need a hit in the ass.), lack of education, and the simple fact that they're too busy keeping body and soul together to give these sorts of things much thought.

The Catholics have a phrase in one of their prayers that goes "And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us"...Which basically translates out, "We'll withhold revenge on our fellow man, if you withhold revenge on us", or "We didn't mete out punishment on someone who deserved it, so please don't punish us in the manner we deserve".

Notice that I said "trespass".  Some crimes SHOULD be punished.  Murder, rape, arson, kiddie-fiddling, etc, are all deserving of prosecution and punishment...But is "They don't agree with my beliefs" worthy of, say, having your house burned down, along with a lifetime of photographs, personal effects, heirlooms, and all the other things that insurance adjusters have never even heard of?

Obviously not...That sort of fanaticism promises a very grim future reminiscent of The Terror, when they punished EVERYONE for EVERYTHING.  That's a pretty grim idea, and the world is already grim enough, don't you think?

There are also practical considerations...If you hand out an ass-kicking to everyone who deserves one, then you're going to be very, very busy.  Odds are your own ass will be sore, too.  And I can only speak for myself, but a world where everyone walks around with sore asses and worn out boots seems like it would be even more unpleasant than the one we have now.

Or Kill Me.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Freeky


Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Reverend Nigel Agrees With This Message.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


The Johnny


I agree with the OP; I had a different idea of your posture on BabylonHoruv's thread on terrorists and subsequently total war.
<<My image in some places, is of a monster of some kind who wants to pull a string and manipulate people. Nothing could be further from the truth. People are manipulated; I just want them to be manipulated more effectively.>>

-B.F. Skinner

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Joh'Nyx on November 08, 2010, 07:54:10 PM

I agree with the OP; I had a different idea of your posture on BabylonHoruv's thread on terrorists and subsequently total war.

?

Link for the senile, please?
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The Johnny


Ill dig for it; the OP was a rant in this subforum by Babylon.
<<My image in some places, is of a monster of some kind who wants to pull a string and manipulate people. Nothing could be further from the truth. People are manipulated; I just want them to be manipulated more effectively.>>

-B.F. Skinner

Whatever

Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on November 08, 2010, 07:25:05 PM
Good afternoon, you evil orgasm badgers.

It's difficult to describe my loathing for certain points of view (though not necessarily the people that field them) that float around here once in a while.  Mostly, the idea that people deserve certain bad things that happen to them...Most recently, this Oakland business.

Fact is, we're all guilty of a lot.  Everyone is.  You can't go through life without being guilty of something.  Should everyone be punished for everything they are guilty of?  That's a question best left to philosophers and angry born again preachers, in my opinion.

Fact:  Your average working stiff IS a complacent boob that either nods in approval or just doesn't care when injustices are committed by the "government".  This is a combination of being told that people are bad and need a little punishing (Though not themselves, of course, their sins are small, unlike those people walking, who really need a hit in the ass.), lack of education, and the simple fact that they're too busy keeping body and soul together to give these sorts of things much thought.

The Catholics have a phrase in one of their prayers that goes "And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us"...Which basically translates out, "We'll withhold revenge on our fellow man, if you withhold revenge on us", or "We didn't mete out punishment on someone who deserved it, so please don't punish us in the manner we deserve".

Notice that I said "trespass".  Some crimes SHOULD be punished.  Murder, rape, arson, kiddie-fiddling, etc, are all deserving of prosecution and punishment...But is "They don't agree with my beliefs" worthy of, say, having your house burned down, along with a lifetime of photographs, personal effects, heirlooms, and all the other things that insurance adjusters have never even heard of?

Obviously not...That sort of fanaticism promises a very grim future reminiscent of The Terror, when they punished EVERYONE for EVERYTHING.  That's a pretty grim idea, and the world is already grim enough, don't you think?

There are also practical considerations...If you hand out an ass-kicking to everyone who deserves one, then you're going to be very, very busy.  Odds are your own ass will be sore, too.  And I can only speak for myself, but a world where everyone walks around with sore asses and worn out boots seems like it would be even more unpleasant than the one we have now.

Or Kill Me.


:mittens: 

This is great!!  I agree, it's beyond stupidity that makes people this way.  Sometimes I've often wondered if we autopsied every person who died if we would find some kind of "fucking idiot" part of the brain that is dormant in a great portion of the popularity and enlarged in others.

Jasper

Good to have you back, Rev.

Haven't read PD in a day or two, so I may be missing a bit of context here (note to self: Oakland Business?), but I appreciated the rant.

I see the issue as a problem of righteousness addiction.  Towering fury is the erogenous zone of human darkness.




Juana

Quote from: Sigmatic on November 08, 2010, 10:05:58 PM
Good to have you back, Rev.

Haven't read PD in a day or two, so I may be missing a bit of context here (note to self: Oakland Business?), but I appreciated the rant.
http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=27271.0
"I dispose of obsolete meat machines.  Not because I hate them (I do) and not because they deserve it (they do), but because they are in the way and those older ones don't meet emissions codes.  They emit too much.  You don't like them and I don't like them, so spare me the hysteria."

Richter

Dishing out pain and punishment is a drug.  Pick up a copy of "The History of Torture" if you don't beleive it.  Getting food, getting sex, surviving danger, and putting down / out the unworthy, it makes some sense if the monkey brain is wired to dopeamine itself when these things are being done.  They are all, at some point, going to be necessary enouhg to require reinforcement.  

This isn't an excuse for us though.  When is it your job, when is it your place, when is it necessary to pass it out?
Quote from: Eater of Clowns on May 22, 2015, 03:00:53 AM
Anyone ever think about how Richter inhabits the same reality as you and just scream and scream and scream, but in a good way?   :lulz:

Friendly Neighborhood Mentat

The Johnny

Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on November 08, 2010, 08:16:57 PM
Quote from: Joh'Nyx on November 08, 2010, 07:54:10 PM

I agree with the OP; I had a different idea of your posture on BabylonHoruv's thread on terrorists and subsequently total war.

?

Link for the senile, please?

Not exactly this post: http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=26568.msg934153#msg934153

But the general spirit of the opinions expressed within that thread.
<<My image in some places, is of a monster of some kind who wants to pull a string and manipulate people. Nothing could be further from the truth. People are manipulated; I just want them to be manipulated more effectively.>>

-B.F. Skinner

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Joh'Nyx on November 09, 2010, 05:35:39 AM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on November 08, 2010, 08:16:57 PM
Quote from: Joh'Nyx on November 08, 2010, 07:54:10 PM

I agree with the OP; I had a different idea of your posture on BabylonHoruv's thread on terrorists and subsequently total war.

?

Link for the senile, please?

Not exactly this post: http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=26568.msg934153#msg934153

But the general spirit of the opinions expressed within that thread.

Okay.

What's tolerating a tyrant got to do with existing in an overly complex yet still - for the most part - free society?
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

E.O.T.

"a good fight justifies any cause"