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In a lot of ways, good faith, "fix people" institutions are the worst. Belief in a system, religious, psychiatric, social or whatnot can allow good people to ov
by dalbasal 5y ago
In a lot of ways, good faith, "fix people" institutions are the worst. Belief in a system, religious, psychiatric, social or whatnot can allow good people to override their common sense interpretations.
Early modern prisons were designed to help/fix people. Some were designed by moral philosophers, experts in ethics. These became nightmarish, producing more psychological injury than many intentionally punitive models like "hard labour."
- threatofrain 5y agoGood faith is worse than... bad faith? Or worse than pure intuition? Because people have had intuition for all time, and they've never stopped using it, including herbal cure remedies for cancer. The option to go without institutional care is already there for anyone without enough money, and it's being exercised all the time, all around the world. Even when you choose institutions you must exercise intuition.
- dalbasal 5y agoI meant worse than bad faith, not always... But sometimes in these circumstances. Maybe "no faith" is closer to the mark. Reformatories with no ideals, just trying to stay open and make ends meet. I suppose the canonical example is the Spanish inquisition, and the rest of the conquista culture. They were saving people from hell, barbarism, sin and such. Also Russian gulags, Canadian residential schools, and many other examples. A "for your own good" mentality has often resulted in some of the worst institutions, or at least a distinctive flavour of bad.
- int_19h 5y agoGulags are not a particularly good example of this, since they were never really meant to reform anyone - that was propaganda from the get-go.