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Bloodlust of a happy people
Published: Thursday | September 17, 2009
Keith Noel, Contributor
Noel
I return to a bug bear of mine, our penchant for violent behaviour. When Jamaicans say that the major problem in our country is crime and violence, they generally have in mind those in our society who perform violent crime. They believe that if these persons can be reformed, or locked away, the problem would be solved.
"It is not crime in itself," a friend of mine expounded at our favourite hangout last Friday night, "it is the violent nature of the crime!" Everyone there seemed to agree that it was not the rate of crime that was disconcerting, it was the level of violence that accompanied the wrongdoing. I posited that this was natural because we were no more likely to commit crime than persons in any other country, but we were far more violent, as a people, than most others.
Eye for an eye
Think for a minute. Our good, law-abiding, churchgoing people are not really as Christian as they protest. They are closer to the Jews and Muslims in the beliefs that underpin their social attitudes. 'An eye for an eye' makes us more comfortable than the principles of mercy and forgiveness. We want murderers and rapists [and possibly all gun-criminals] to die. Hang them high! We would feel vindicated. We would feel safer. Would we? Or is it that it would satisfy a bloodlust that rages below the surface of our Christian exterior?
Look at the vexing question of homosexuality. I have many friends who believe that this is a choice by completely immoral persons to perform horribly unnatural acts which are condemned by God, etc.. When I ask, "doesn't fornication - sex outside of marriage - fall in the same bracket, and does not the Bible say that sin is sin?" I am accused of using arguments to excuse these villains. Some Christians want homosexuals run out of church, reviled and, if necessary, beaten.
I am not speaking about pederasts or homosexual rapists but about persons who are 'guilty' of homosexual affection and are bold enough to display this publicly. Remember what happened in Falmouth, when a man was found cross-dressing [which does not necessarily mean that he had had a homosexual relationship]. And was beaten viciously. The scene was videotaped and spread across the internet and I am yet to hear of an arrest made as a result.
But maybe the most irrational of all is the cry for corporal punishment in schools. "Beat them from young! Don't spare the rod and spoil the child!" The most amazing aspect of this thinking was argued recently in defence of flogging two preteens for fighting. The teacher had lectured to these children on conflict resolution and showed them that violence was not the way to solve problems "talk it out!" she explained. Minutes later a fight broke out.
Talking had failed
"If you don't hear. You mus feel" she declared as she flogged them rather unmercifully. This, despite one boy saying that he had been appealing to the other to return his pen and he had only resorted to violence because talking had failed. The teacher did not see the irony. The child had tried reasoning, it failed, so he resorted to violence. She, having tried reasoning about the futility of violence, resorted to violence in order to teach him not to be violent.
The irony, the illogic, escapes us all. So many persons claim "I was beaten as a child and it did me no harm!" How does one know? And even so, how do you know that you are not one of a small percentage who was fortunate not to have been scarred? These persons reject the findings of scientific research.
For some reason some of us have, deep within, a desire to have out-of-order children flogged, homosexuals beaten, robbers given the cat-o-nine, praedial thieves mobbed, murderers hanged, and anyone who draws a gun in the process of a crime shot by the police!
But here's the rub ... they have found that we are among the happiest people in the world!
Keith Noel is an educator. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com
Published: Thursday | September 17, 2009
Keith Noel, Contributor
Noel
I return to a bug bear of mine, our penchant for violent behaviour. When Jamaicans say that the major problem in our country is crime and violence, they generally have in mind those in our society who perform violent crime. They believe that if these persons can be reformed, or locked away, the problem would be solved.
"It is not crime in itself," a friend of mine expounded at our favourite hangout last Friday night, "it is the violent nature of the crime!" Everyone there seemed to agree that it was not the rate of crime that was disconcerting, it was the level of violence that accompanied the wrongdoing. I posited that this was natural because we were no more likely to commit crime than persons in any other country, but we were far more violent, as a people, than most others.
Eye for an eye
Think for a minute. Our good, law-abiding, churchgoing people are not really as Christian as they protest. They are closer to the Jews and Muslims in the beliefs that underpin their social attitudes. 'An eye for an eye' makes us more comfortable than the principles of mercy and forgiveness. We want murderers and rapists [and possibly all gun-criminals] to die. Hang them high! We would feel vindicated. We would feel safer. Would we? Or is it that it would satisfy a bloodlust that rages below the surface of our Christian exterior?
Look at the vexing question of homosexuality. I have many friends who believe that this is a choice by completely immoral persons to perform horribly unnatural acts which are condemned by God, etc.. When I ask, "doesn't fornication - sex outside of marriage - fall in the same bracket, and does not the Bible say that sin is sin?" I am accused of using arguments to excuse these villains. Some Christians want homosexuals run out of church, reviled and, if necessary, beaten.
I am not speaking about pederasts or homosexual rapists but about persons who are 'guilty' of homosexual affection and are bold enough to display this publicly. Remember what happened in Falmouth, when a man was found cross-dressing [which does not necessarily mean that he had had a homosexual relationship]. And was beaten viciously. The scene was videotaped and spread across the internet and I am yet to hear of an arrest made as a result.
But maybe the most irrational of all is the cry for corporal punishment in schools. "Beat them from young! Don't spare the rod and spoil the child!" The most amazing aspect of this thinking was argued recently in defence of flogging two preteens for fighting. The teacher had lectured to these children on conflict resolution and showed them that violence was not the way to solve problems "talk it out!" she explained. Minutes later a fight broke out.
Talking had failed
"If you don't hear. You mus feel" she declared as she flogged them rather unmercifully. This, despite one boy saying that he had been appealing to the other to return his pen and he had only resorted to violence because talking had failed. The teacher did not see the irony. The child had tried reasoning, it failed, so he resorted to violence. She, having tried reasoning about the futility of violence, resorted to violence in order to teach him not to be violent.
The irony, the illogic, escapes us all. So many persons claim "I was beaten as a child and it did me no harm!" How does one know? And even so, how do you know that you are not one of a small percentage who was fortunate not to have been scarred? These persons reject the findings of scientific research.
For some reason some of us have, deep within, a desire to have out-of-order children flogged, homosexuals beaten, robbers given the cat-o-nine, praedial thieves mobbed, murderers hanged, and anyone who draws a gun in the process of a crime shot by the police!
But here's the rub ... they have found that we are among the happiest people in the world!
Keith Noel is an educator. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com
...the difficulty lies in managing when to administer and when not to administer...
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