Re: Can this be bad for us?

I've always been against the death penalty. When I was 13, someone conducted an in-class survey to see how many people were for and against it. It was not conducted in private--you were asked to raise your hand for or against. I was one of only two people who raised my hand against. Now that survey wasn't biased, was it? Of course, this was in the South, so naturally there was pressure to be for it.

There are a few reasons I'm against it, but the primary reason is that, if you set up a system in which killing is the highest moral infraction and the worst crime (which it should be), the state effectively shoots itself in the foot by doing the same thing it says you should not do. People get the message that the state doesn't really mean it; that they're only trying to keep order for its own sake. Ergo, the message is 'Premeditated killing is wrong, except in certain circumstances,' and some people will take that message to heart and are therefore more likely to kill. Of course, there are some circumstances are necessary: I mean in self-defense or the defense of someone in clear and present danger. But unlike with capital punishment, this is not planned (premeditated.)

Another reason I'm against it is because I do not support vengeance justice. I believe everyone should have a chance at redemption (this is also the reason I stopped believing in hell as a young man.) There is no redemption from death. You're dead, that's it. To me killing constitutes cruel and unusual punishment--I can't understand how the state can outlaw torturing prisoners but not outlaw killing them, which even the gov't agrees is the worst thing you can do to someone else. It's utter hypocrisy and only fosters more resentment towards the gov't and therefore makes people less likely to respect it as an institution. The gov't is like a parent who says, "Do as I say, not as I do." I always resented my dad for saying such things and lost respect for him for upholding hypocrisy as a good parenting practice. In any case, the state should not be feeding into our lower emotions, and the desire for revenge is a brute emotion; it is not noble in any way. We've all had such feelings before, because we're human, but that doesn't mean we should indulge them.