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Brief Essay on "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right" and Criminal Punishment:
The way I see it, if a piece of gum says $0.25 on it, and you pick it out of the basket and chew it, YOU made the decision, YOU are the one who CHOSE to spend $0.25. Just because you broke your contract and ran out of the store without paying, doesn't mean the cops came along and *forced* a $0.25 penalty upon you. You already contracted for it yourself.
Same with the death penalty. If everyone knows the price, and intentionally willfully takes a life, they have no one but themselves to blame. The state didn't *kill* them -- it simply enforced what they agreed to pay on their own free will. Deflecting the responsibility of the act to the state is mere semantics.
This argument has a certain reductio ad absurdum to it. It is wrong to take money from someone else, ergo the state can't fine you because 2 wrongs don't make a right. It is wrong to take away the liberty of others, ergo the state can't imprison you because 2 wrongs don't make a right. It is a logical fallacy that has a certain nice "ring" to it that traps people.
The problem is one of symmetry. If someone can't kill, the state can't kill, 2 wrongs don't make a right. Well, if someone can't imprison, the state can't imprison, because two wrongs don't make a right. Or, remove the symmetry, and you get the completely bogus-sounding: if somone can't kill, it is wrong to imprison for killing, because two wrongs don't make a right. Remove the symmetry, and the logical flaws of this argument become glaring.
Every punishment that exists for a crime is an other-wise prohibited "wrong" for people to do to each other.
Sorry, but this argument holds zero merit at all. I hope you can see it for what it is now. Believe me, I too was briefly seduced by it. But, if you step back you can see it for what it is.
{edit} This post is independed of support for the D.P. or its abolition. It is merely based on raw logical reasoning. One would hope that more salient reasons would be found by the abolitionist camp -- they are certainly out there. I just hate to see so many people hang their hat on reasoning that is absolutely flawed at its base.
[ 11-07-2003, 01:33 AM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]
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