Thomas_More
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http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Godwin/pj71.html
Godwin on punishment.
(I have to ask, ALB, have you REALLY read him?)
“Surely restraint is a form of punishment?”
The subject won’t perhaps like it, and may see it as such. But would society be inflicting it as punishment? That’s the difference.
In a sane society, very unlike today, the subject would also be looked at to try and find the roots of why he feels the need to drink himself stupid, and then risk his own life by driving.
Under capitalism we know that intoxication (with drink or drugs), is a form of escapism. Why would anyone in socialism wish to escape?
No. The big difference is, that in class society, restraint isn’t just restraint. It’s about inflicting punishment. Prison: ugly, violent, dirty and smelly surroundings. Regimentation. Deliberate disrespect.
In socialism, restraint will be enough, surely? Need the place of restraint be horrendous? Need the subject be placed amid those likely to do him violence? Need he be shouted at and abused, or made to stand to attention?
Whatever the nature of restraint will be, it will be for those in that society to decide.
Punishment, on the other hand, is linked to the idealist dogma of free will and guilt, in which human representatives of divine judgment hand down rewards and punishments.
In socialism, I believe restraint will be purely utilitarian.
Columbo. Addressing the question of “if.”
Peter Falk: “If we hadn’t pulled it off, would you have killed him?”
Rod Steiger: “Why are you asking stupid questions? We did pull it off.”
Thank you. Anarchist sympathies still prevail in southern France, where Marx is not liked so much.
The rural population seemed to divide as either Anarchist or royalist.
TS – “Won’t even waste my time reading it.”
We waste our time reading you. We’ve answered all your justifications for state-run butchery many times over … Over your head. But then, like all the apologists for totalitarianism, you only repeat state propaganda and cannot handle substance.
Why was Anarchism more popular in Latin southern Europe, and Marxism associated more with the north?
Thanks. I didn’t know. He has gone back up in my estimation.
Jean Jaures was murdered by a patriot for opposing the war. And yet, I believe Jaures was a pioneer of “socialist” reformism (?)
It is evident that contradictions were about long before the internet.
Kropotkin’s secretary was Elisee Reclus, and Reclus’ secretary was Alexandra David-Neel, who became a Buddhist. 😀
