Ugh, my life D:

[fushigi_na_chou]

~.: My LJ is turning out to be a bipolar ranting space. 8D At any rate, I don't really wanna talk about how depressed I am over my finances for the umpteenth time. I have no money, you all know it, life goes on sucking

Comments

[windup_bird]

Unfortunately there is a flaw in your belief that people should never be punished -- if people are not punished in some way for wrong behavior they will continue to repeat that behavior. In general this is the way it goes. This is why there are things like spanking, time outs, and grounding of children and the same basic ideas at the very least need to be taken with adults as well.

People are not inherently good, unfortunately, which is why there are rules and punishments in place. Guilt alone is not enough punishment because you can't trust everyone to feel guilty, or if they do to have it bother them in any way.

That being said I still stand by my view that people should be left to feel guilty for their actions. They should. They did something wrong and should feel guilty for it. That is the correct reaction and it's a kind of self-punishment. No one should make them feel better for committing an act that was wrong. Removing their guilt shows them that the act is okay when it is most definitely not.

[fushigi_na_chou]

Perhaps that's the paradox of forgiveness. I agree people should feel guilty when they do something wrong, but how long a person is made to feel guilty about something -- it's sort of arbitrary, isn't it? Everyone is going to have differing opinions about how bad an action is (and I'm not saying that what happened wasn't bad, or that guilt shouldn't be felt at all), it's just, how long is long enough? Who makes that decision

[windup_bird]

I believe there should be guilt until the person wronged is ready to forgive them for their actions. The person who committed the action is not a victim (aside from possibly a victim of their society but that in and of itself creates a paradox because you can't change society without punishing wronged actions

[fushigi_na_chou]

Well, no, I realize it's not my forgiveness to give, but insofar as I'm affected by his actions, I've given that forgiveness. Ultimately, you're right, it's up to the party who was wronged the most to give forgiveness, if they so choose. But I also don't believe that, in lieu of not receiving forgiveness, a person should hate themselves, or be hated by others forever

[kendobunny]

See, I have never believed that forgiveness entails trust. Saddam Hussein was a homicidal maniac to make other homicidal maniacs blush... and seriously, if you knew half the things about him that weren't released to the press, I don't think you would feel sorry for him either. If he got what he deserved, they still wouldn't be done torturing him yet. And someone who brutally rapes people, dips them inch by inch, alive, into acid vats, and video tapes it to watch later is not going to feel guilty if you leave him alone long enough

[fushigi_na_chou]

My issue with sociopaths and psychopaths, however, is that they actually have issues with their brains. Yes, they still do horrible things, and the negative consequence of that action should be to lock them away, but for safety. I don't believe people are genuinely evil, only that they can be sick (as in ill) enough to commit crimes that bad. There are causes behind a person's behavior, no matter how abhorrent, but I don't really know what my point is there, so

[fushigi_na_chou]

Alright, so I judge the act to be bad. I always have. So now what do I do? I have no idea how to address it.