4 ms·

In 50 years people will think of many of our cultural norms, exclusions and rules were horrific. 50 years after that ... For example, I think in 100 years act

In 50 years people will think of many of our cultural norms, exclusions and rules were horrific. 50 years after that ... For example, I think in 100 years acts like murder will be classed as a mental health issue and treated rather than "punished" (tho societal exclusion may remain).

quacked 4y ago
I think that will be true if meaningful rewiring of someone's brain becomes possible. One of the reasons these types of aberrant behaviors aren't "treated" is that no such treatment exists. (I know interventions can be made that have predictably positive aggregate effects, but it is certainly not true at present that you can take any individual and therapy them into a moral, law-abiding person.)
- sirsinsalot 4y ago
  There's plenty of things assumed untreatable 50 years ago which are common place to treat now. What's your point? We also used to treat "female hysteria" with sexual abuse and orgasms, homosexuality with castration, and so on. Also not everything is immediately structural. Someone who kills because they've been indoctrinated to hate women by the incel movement isn't the same as the person with a head injury who struggles to control anger and a lack of empathy. I'd argue neither are punishable, but treated either with a view to rectify or to at least give the poor soul a dignified restriction from being able to act freely. Granted there will be plenty of people you can't treat, that doesn't make them any less poorly.
hnfong 4y ago
> For example, I think in 100 years acts like murder will be classed as a mental health issue and treated rather than "punished" (tho societal exclusion may remain). We're already kind of there. That's why a lot of murder cases end up with insanity pleas. When I studied criminal law I had a lot of trouble trying to convince myself there's really a difference between "sane" and "insane" murderers... And when I extended this doubt to other serious crimes as well, there was a nihilistic feeling about the whole system in general (which is what people already know -- you can get away with a lot of things if you have money to hire a lawyer, and the legal system is generally harsher towards poor and unprivileged people).

quacked 4y ago

I think that will be true if meaningful rewiring of someone's brain becomes possible. One of the reasons these types of aberrant behaviors aren't "treated" is that no such treatment exists. (I know interventions can be made that have predictably positive aggregate effects, but it is certainly not true at present that you can take any individual and therapy them into a moral, law-abiding person.)

sirsinsalot 4y ago
There's plenty of things assumed untreatable 50 years ago which are common place to treat now. What's your point? We also used to treat "female hysteria" with sexual abuse and orgasms, homosexuality with castration, and so on. Also not everything is immediately structural. Someone who kills because they've been indoctrinated to hate women by the incel movement isn't the same as the person with a head injury who struggles to control anger and a lack of empathy. I'd argue neither are punishable, but treated either with a view to rectify or to at least give the poor soul a dignified restriction from being able to act freely. Granted there will be plenty of people you can't treat, that doesn't make them any less poorly.

hnfong 4y ago

> For example, I think in 100 years acts like murder will be classed as a mental health issue and treated rather than "punished" (tho societal exclusion may remain). We're already kind of there. That's why a lot of murder cases end up with insanity pleas. When I studied criminal law I had a lot of trouble trying to convince myself there's really a difference between "sane" and "insane" murderers... And when I extended this doubt to other serious crimes as well, there was a nihilistic feeling about the whole system in general (which is what people already know -- you can get away with a lot of things if you have money to hire a lawyer, and the legal system is generally harsher towards poor and unprivileged people).