Yes or No, Right or Wrong ......

Imagine what would happen if every crimal trial could end in only one of two ways ? Every judgement would be so simple. Be warned, just because a judgement is simple it does not mean it is any less difficult.

Life without the gray areas. You break the law, you die. No mercy, no quarter, only death. Simplicity of true genius, I say.

I'm picking on the criminal justice system only because it's a convenient analogy. I do have a few lawyer friends, but this has nothing to do with them.

Shit hits the fan when we introduce varying degrees of right and wrong. In other words, we begin to compromise.

Is robbing a house less wrong than raping a girl which is less wrong than committing a murder ? One gets a few months in prison with a fine, the other probably a few years in prison and the last one probably more than just a few years in prison, say life imprisonment.

Let me make this a little simpler. Lets work on the assumption that the criminals are caught, properly prosecuted and sentenced. I'm removing the probability of capture from the equation. Any unwarranted assumption is bad science, but since this is a blog i'm not being as stringent.

I'm not sure what people can infer from this, but I see economics. Rather simple micro economics actually. If the benefits from committing the crime outweigh the risk in committing the crime, that crime will continually be committed. The equation tilts overwhelmingly in favour of committing crimes especially if I remove the assumption that all criminals are caught etc etc. This is a lot closer to reality.

I distinctly remember this from my college days, NOTHING IS EVER FREE. If you don't pay, then somebody else does. How is that being fair ?

What if we always pay the ultimate price? Nothing comes cheap, no compromise. You break the law, you die. I'm not talking about a neat execution where the criminals are granted a last wish, a last meal and then hung by the neck until death. I'm talking a gory death. I'm talking cutting the head off and returning only the headless corpse to the families. Sounds barbaric doesn't it ?

Do you think anything less dramatic is capable of coercing change ? Change has to happen not only at an individual level, it should also happen at the mass level. A person is smart, but people are generally stupid. To convince the people, you need something equally compelling. One high profile case with this law in effect is all it would take. With the current technology, high definition satellite transmission, people would be able to practically taste the brain matter.

It is very tempting to underestimate the power of stupidity and the power of fear. Fear will overcome stupidity any day, hands down. An attack on the most primal of man's instincts, survival, is bound to get a lot of attention.

I hate repeating myself but i'll make an exception here, Simplicity of true genius.

There will always be an argument that fear is not a permanent solution, it'll never bring a sense of peace. But it will bring order and considering the current state of affairs it will more than suffice.

Imagine all the accused in the mumbai hit and run cases are sentenced to death. How many people will still have the guts to drink and drive on the streets ?

I can already hear the human activists screaming their guts out. I only say, save it for those who are wrong fully punished. None of the others deserve a break.