Eunuchs and Slaves

After a cup of coffee and some monkey work, I’m ready for some posting.

So, my friend and I were jokingly discussing the merits of capital punishment. My friend proposed forced manual labor. Have the car jackers build our highways, the rapists build abused women shelters, the murderers dig graves… A twisted but balanced form of justice, non?

I went a little caffeine-high crazy and proposed castration for extreme crimes (child rape, gruesome premeditated murders, etc.), particularly if it’s a repeat offender, in lieu of lifetime imprisonment. Why? Because lifetime imprisonment is: 1.) A horrible life behind bars, but not a very effective deterrence since we currently seem to have plenty o’ life-timers in prison, 2.) A crazy burden on taxpayers who may not want to pay for someone who kidnapped, raped, and killed the child next door, and 3.) A badge of honor among the ruffians. When I was in high school, I knew two groups of people. Those who said, “Holy Sh*t, Shy Boy (yeah, that's a real gang name) went to jail? OMG!” and those who said, “Shy Boy went to jail?  Mad respect. That’s my esse.”

Now, don't get your knickers in a twist: Yes, we were only talking about punishment for men, not women. Yes, it was a light convo that was gender specific. So sue me. And before you try to extinguish my flame, I have to repeat that we were joking. If you're hypersensitive, (always) politically correct, and love mayonnaise, get the hell outta my blog. You’re ruining my fun...and possibly my sandwich?

I obviously would never lobby for prisoner-castration. Well, never say never… Anyway, aside from it violating the hallowed Constitution of our beautiful, freedom-loving country, it’s also quite grotesque. I’m not that bloodthirsty. And what would you do with all those fancy-free appendages afterwards?  Can't recycle them?

Plus, if it does prove to be an effective deterrent against future crimes, the question remains: If this is allowed, how far will be push the boundaries of "befitting" punishment for the crime? Also, what would be the long-term consequences? It’s all well and good that rapists and child molesters wouldn’t be able to breed anymore, but what would it do psychologically to them...to us? What kind of backlash would occur? Would the "eunuchs" become more violent? As a friend pointed out, in certain South African regions, certain local officials punish offenders with castration, only to have these offenders run amok and violate women with inanimate objects. Yeah, not pleasant.  And what about the general public - would we become inured to this form of violence and ultimately demand construction of Roman Colliseums next to every McDonald's?

Then my mind shifted a little to the left. I thought, “Well, it’s unacceptable because I live in our current paradigm of justice. We help grandmas across the street, don’t blow ourselves up to get a point across (for the most part), and feed our prisoners. Hell, we love raw fish and treat our cats to $40K weddings (don’t get me started). Would I find it so unacceptable if I lived in a more violent, bare-knuckled society? If my sense of justice twisted, would I consider castration a violation of civilized society? Or would it just be fair?” Scaaary.