Societies claim a purpose when they argue to establish an institution by budgeting it. The purpose of jail is to restrain the murderer, the rapist, the reckless sociopath. Republics say they want citizens to be free, but they want Genghis to be tied up.
Who would be against that, except maybe Genghis?
The trouble is once you’ve established something, then it exists for its own reasons: and can start manufacturing rationalizations.
What happens to institutions once we see them doing something other than the original founding reason? Jail exists to tie up Genghis: then how come societies wind up arresting and jailing Jesus? and Peter? and Paul?
Then how come societies wind up arresting Gandhi?
Germany had jails under the kaisers? How come Germany still had jails under the Nazis?
How come there was still a US once it was obvious that we did not all hold that all men are created equal? Or that there was no agreement across political factions as to what constituted a man?
Once we knew that the US put US citizens of Japanese ethnicity into concentration camps during WWII, why was there still a US?
How come, once the fed censored pk, school boards still teach that we have free speech?
(How come liars expect to be trusted? How can we form societies in the first place?)
Why don’t societies commit suicide the moment they realize,
Because liars do expect to be believed. And we are!
