Flawed Heroes

by jgnat 37 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Dogpatch

  Razzael sez,

  In a sense, we're all fractured characters. We can compensate for our weaknesses, but I don't think that we can turn them into strengths as strong as our natural strengths. I think a portion of wisdom is identifying what our weaknesses are, and then when confronted with a situation involving that weakness, to carefully solicit and consider the advice from others we consider strong in that area before making a decision, even if we decide to follow another path. That quality also makes a good Manager

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• 

  Dogpatch

  If you are in pain or miserable enough in the body, you learn your weaknesses well, but that enables you to have extra power when you are better if you practice.

  Old Dogz can learn new tricks!

  
• 

  sabastious

  I am thinking, for the smooth operation of civilization, sab, that the motive is not nearly as important as the result. If a robbery is foiled because a criminal is spooked by onlookers, or because the criminal has been successfully rehabilitated, the result is the same. The family is not robbed.

  A criminal being spooked by onlookers is a random beneficial event. Rehabilitation would require the criminal to choose at some point to stop being one. The result is not the same at all because the first example only prevents one robbery, the second prevents an indefinite amount of robberies as you can never be sure how many they would have engaged in without the rehab.

  Wrong motives will eventually corrupt and decay into oblivion and it will go wholly unnoticed by the majority of the public until it's too late. Take a look at the condition of government right now for instance. What is percieved as a good intention is not necessarily the truth. The door opener's intention to appear good is fundamentally different than one of a willingness to help. Think about when we raise our children. Do we tell them that manners are good because it makes you look good, or because they are actually good for the world? The former will develop a stereotypical drone and the latter an honorable citizen.

  -Sab
• 

  jgnat

  I was thinking of the crime triangle sabastious. Removal of any one of the three will prevent crime from happening.

  

  Take for instance the broken windows theory of crime prevention, which had such a big impact on New York. Take care of the little things, and the big things take care of themselves. Say we have someone with criminal desires. We put this person in an environment where there are no targets and no opportunity. The person's reasons may be shallow, but eventually we have a reformed criminal.
• 

  sabastious

  Take for instance the broken windows theory of crime prevention, which had such a big impact on New York. Take care of the little things, and the big things take care of themselves. Say we have someone with criminal desires. We put this person in an environment where there are no targets and no opportunity. The person's reasons may be shallow, but eventually we have a reformed criminal.

  The question is what creates the criminal thoughts, and more importantly what compels them to action? I think it's a little naive to assume isolation can somehow magically rehabilitate a criminal. What if the criminal feels perfectly justified? What if they have a legitimate grievance that is not being acknowledged? What if they are being victimized by the very system that purports to be in their best interest? I guess that's what locks are for.

  -Sab
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  jgnat

  Sabastious, all those possible motives fall under "desire". The crime still won't happen if the other two factors aren't available. True, it may not be enough to rehabilitate the criminal, but our streets are still safe. As you say, that's what locks are for.

  This triangle is used by law enforcement to help clean up neighbourhoods. There are very simple deterrents, when implemented, are effective in preventing crime.
• 

  cptkirk

  yawn, yea i'd be pretty critical too if this happened to me:

  According to John Baxter in A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict , Hornberger "was so furious at having sold the film rights for only a few hundred dollars that he never again signed a copy of the book"

  Hornberger = Hooker. pseudo
• 

  jgnat

  It was more than that cptkirk, but Wiki doesn't share the whole story. I think I saw it on a M*A*S*H documentary. Hooker/Hornberger wrote of the hijinks during the war, but did not protest the war itself. He saw the television series as, well, pinko liberalism run amok, and trivializing the sacrifice of these dedicated individuals. After a while he was no longer welcome on the set.
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  sabastious

  This triangle is used by law enforcement to help clean up neighbourhoods. There are very simple deterrents, when implemented, are effective in preventing crime.

  Crime is mitigated would be a better way to put. Sadly, your ideology leaves out a small percentage of people you deem essentially unexplainable. You have created labels for them like "psycho", "sadist", "pathological", "sociopath", "egomaniac" etc, but all of them while incredibly useful theories are inexact sciences. They all make attempt to explain the problems created by lack of family qualitatively, and quantitatively. We don't have a solution to what's shredding apart our family's so our best guess is to call out the culprits as simply animalistic. Animals murder and rape each other all the time, we expect it from them. But for some reason, for a few brief stretches of history across the globe, human family values were given the utmost importance in society, even to a fault at times. It was after that event took place that humanity started on a path that would literally skyrocket them into space and beyond.

  -Sab
• 

  jgnat

  Consider also, sab, a child raised in a neighbourhood that gradually cleans up its streets. The former neighbourhood, by its very image, may have suggested to the child that criminal activity at the very least is tolerated. Clean up the street and the child might hope for a better future.