Date: Tue, 4 Nov 1997 21:59:59 -0500
From: Yoshie Furuhashi <Furuhashi.1-AT-osu.edu>
Subject: Crime and Punishment (was Re: M-I: Re: So, the nanny's "guilty"?)


Louis G wrote in reply to Charlotte:
>I think cases like this illustrate very well the success with which capital
>has widened its social base to drag the intermediate social layers into
>support for its reactionary adventures.  We have a huge "jury pool" of
>stupified, passive "citizens", each with the reasoning capabilities of the
>average 9 to 12 year-old, susceptible to the most hegemonic and reactionary
>ideas, and possessing an almost heroic capacity to be swindled.  Their
>impulse is to vote "guilty" under practically any circumstances, precisely
>because that is what they are told to do on TV.

Obsessions with crime and punishment seem to be a key link in the
ideological chain. As Louis G. notes, the law and order mentality and "get
tough on crime" attitudes have become hard-wired into many people's minds
by the media and political rhetoric. Fear of crime and desire to punish
criminals are way out of proportion to the actual incidence of crime in
America. (Those who are the least likely to become victims of violent crime
are also often the most vocal in calling for longer sentences and other
measures to control the population.)

Bombarding people with the stories of crime and detection of guilt also
serves to reinforce individualism: it is individuals who are "guilty" (or,
as the case may be, "innocent"), not the totality of social relations that
produce the individuals and their acts. So even in the case where justice
is done (regarding the determination of guilt and innocence of a given
individual), capitalism may still benefit from mass preoccupation with
crime. (One may enlist Freud and Foucault to explain the role that the
ideas of guilt + innocence have played in the production of modern
individuals who must learn to become "moral" in a way that is compatible
with capitalist social relations.)

Yoshie




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