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As much as I might want to agree with some of them, they fail the 'time' test. We've used prisons for a while, same with eating animals.
by DickingAround 13y ago
As much as I might want to agree with some of them, they fail the 'time' test. We've used prisons for a while, same with eating animals.
- ggreer 13y agoThat's a good point, but things withstand the test of time until they don't. Slavery. Racism. Subjugation of women. Torture as entertainment. These practices were once as widespread as smallpox and polio. Now, they're as widespread as smallpox and polio.
- scarmig 13y agoWorld of difference. Eating animals has happened since, well, our first ancestors crawled out of the ocean. Prisons are a radically modern invention, maybe more so than any other government institution. It's just they and their logic are so pervasive we don't recognize them for what they are. See: Foucault, Bentham.
- sliverstorm 13y agoWhat do you mean prisons are a modern invention? Prisons/jails have been around since the dawn of history. Or are you wrapping ancient Egypt into your notion of radically modern. (Ok, maybe ancient Egypt didn't have many cells with walls and bars for windows, but they sure had prisoners chained to things)
- scarmig 13y agoPrisons originated in the 18th century. Before then "prisons" were more or less temporary affairs, usually just a makeshift holding chamber where people were kept before the actual punishment was meted out (death, torture, or mutilation). But the idea of a building where people are isolated and placed under permanent bodily control for months or years on end by the State (for the betterment of society, or fixing of the individual, or punishment, or whatever) is very much a product of the Enlightenment.
- sliverstorm 13y agoSurely chain gangs are older than the 18th century.
- kansface 13y agoFactory farms are a new thing.