jchrisobrien (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jchrisobrien) wrote2005-12-13 10:53 am
jchrisobrien) wrote2005-12-13 10:53 am
Yes. No. Yes. No. Maybe. Sometimes. Crap.
Call it the astrological influence of being a Libra cusp (concerned with balance), call it weighing both sides of the issues, or call it plain on wishy washy, but I have a profoundly hard time coming down on one side of the fence or the other for a lot of the big moral issues out there. The Tookie Williams execution is the latest example of this. If you don't know, just plug tookie williams in google and read about him yourself, you can make up your own mind as to whether he is repentant or not.
I was raised Roman Catholic, so I was taught that killing was wrong, be it during war, murder, execution, or abortion. Later I learned about exemptions during wartime, and taking a life while defending your self, and a thousand other shades of grey. I've seen the hypocrisy of people who are pro-choice but anti-death penalty, and those who say life is sacred unless you are a murderer. I hear the arguments on either side, and I sway to and for depending on the eloquence of the speaker or the precision of their logic.
It's more than frustrating, it's weak. Your beliefs define your character, and if you're beliefs change with the wind, what does that say about you? I believe that people are organic: they grow and change over time, and once your learn something that doesn't mean you are committed to that belief for the rest of your life. Change should occur after you wrestle with an issue, hold up your beliefs to a spotlight, kick the tires and see how they hold.
Buy the car because you like it, not because the salesman made you like it.
I am a vortex of thoughts and opinions. Murder is the worst thing you can do to someone. Forgivness is a sign of civilization. People have to take responsibility for their actions, and suffer the consequences if that applies. People can change. Some people never change. You can come from a horrible background and neighborhood and better yourself. You can come from a cultured, civilized background and be an amoral prick who justifies their vile behavior through philosophy or a thousand shades of grey. People will say anything to save their life. You can't force someone to change.
If it's inhumane to kill someone who has killed another, what do you do to them? How should they pay for their crime? How many years of your life should you sacrifice to pay for the years you took from another? Can you ever really pay for that crime, and if you can't, why bother incarcerating them in the first place? I am told there are plenty of studies that say that the death penalty is not a deterrent. By that token, people are going to kill or rape or steal regardless of what you do. What is our response to that?
These kind of question quickly spiral out of the micro view and into the macro. They become questions of culture, of society. People wouldn't steal if they weren't poor. Any society that grows has rules, and needs ways of punishing people who break those rules. All kinds of words on all sides of the argument again. Drowning in a sea of emotion and logic.
If I really buckle down and think about it, I can come up with answers that satify me. It's good when things happen that make you question your beliefs, and even better if you can be consistant about them in the end.
I was raised Roman Catholic, so I was taught that killing was wrong, be it during war, murder, execution, or abortion. Later I learned about exemptions during wartime, and taking a life while defending your self, and a thousand other shades of grey. I've seen the hypocrisy of people who are pro-choice but anti-death penalty, and those who say life is sacred unless you are a murderer. I hear the arguments on either side, and I sway to and for depending on the eloquence of the speaker or the precision of their logic.
It's more than frustrating, it's weak. Your beliefs define your character, and if you're beliefs change with the wind, what does that say about you? I believe that people are organic: they grow and change over time, and once your learn something that doesn't mean you are committed to that belief for the rest of your life. Change should occur after you wrestle with an issue, hold up your beliefs to a spotlight, kick the tires and see how they hold.
Buy the car because you like it, not because the salesman made you like it.
I am a vortex of thoughts and opinions. Murder is the worst thing you can do to someone. Forgivness is a sign of civilization. People have to take responsibility for their actions, and suffer the consequences if that applies. People can change. Some people never change. You can come from a horrible background and neighborhood and better yourself. You can come from a cultured, civilized background and be an amoral prick who justifies their vile behavior through philosophy or a thousand shades of grey. People will say anything to save their life. You can't force someone to change.
If it's inhumane to kill someone who has killed another, what do you do to them? How should they pay for their crime? How many years of your life should you sacrifice to pay for the years you took from another? Can you ever really pay for that crime, and if you can't, why bother incarcerating them in the first place? I am told there are plenty of studies that say that the death penalty is not a deterrent. By that token, people are going to kill or rape or steal regardless of what you do. What is our response to that?
These kind of question quickly spiral out of the micro view and into the macro. They become questions of culture, of society. People wouldn't steal if they weren't poor. Any society that grows has rules, and needs ways of punishing people who break those rules. All kinds of words on all sides of the argument again. Drowning in a sea of emotion and logic.
If I really buckle down and think about it, I can come up with answers that satify me. It's good when things happen that make you question your beliefs, and even better if you can be consistant about them in the end.
no subject
I also believe that a change of heart isn’t sufficient recompense for great sin. It has to be affirmed by some kind of repentant action. and that the sole purpose of that penance is to help lift the burden being carried by one's soul. it is not for redemption or forgiveness in the material world. (and any expectation that it would do so, certainly calls the veracity repentance into question.)
however, there are circumstances under which doing wrong is necessary either for the greater good or just to achieve goals deemed worth the price. (self-defense being one of those cases.) nonetheless, this does not relieve the person of the onerous, the burden, the blackening of their soul, brought on by their actions.
this applies to societies as well as individuals. every time society decides to incarcerate or kill someone, it is taking on the burden of doing harm to someone (irrespective of the good that might be doing society as a whole) to further their own agenda. and one can never lose sight of the fact each and every such act darkens one's soul.
not that I don't believe in incarceration or the death penalty. I just think people should be honest with themselves as to what they are doing, why they are doing it and the price inherent in their choices.
no subject
I agree with your second point. Repentant action is the proof that you are trying to lift the burden of your sin, trying to make better what you have ruined. Actions speaking louder and all that. Make amends for your wrong doing. You might be forgiven, you might not, but what's important is that you are doing something positive.
I agree again. People may have to do wrong things: killing people in war, or killing someone in self defense. You still killed someone, it's still something that you have to face. Taking another life, under any circumstance, affects you. Granted, you don't want to die, but still.
Honesty in one's motives is one of the noblest goals we have.