growth

I have a bunch of jumbled thoughts on this... why are we so unforgiving that we focus so much on inflicting pain?

1. Marco Rubio for instance got paid tens of thousands of dollars during 2013-2014 in exchange for a new Florida funded for-profit-prison amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. Paid from taxes, and people still vote for him.

We just shrug; "extreme consequences for bad behavior is consent." It's a convenient rationalization to ignore corruption, despite the fact it's literal slavery. It's unconsenting unjustified labor.

America is 5% of the world population and yet American prisoners make up ~25% of the entire world's prisoners. There is a problem here, but it's ignored because retribution is pleasuring.

This mindset is reflective of three decades ago with Nixon's "War on Drugs," and even further back with our understanding of heaven and hell.

2. When children are young, corporal punishment is seen as acceptable. Extreme measures for bad behavior, against psychologists and studies citing detrimental effects to the young mind.

“I don’t know what it was about me that made me so ‘strong-willed’ and difficult to control,” Lindsey, 37[...] “But I fucking want it back.” (Sourced from journalist Talia Lavin's piece, "Ministry of Violence.)

3. I know this is more or less benign, but there's also cancel culture, which I believe is antithetical to progressive values. There is a component of galvanizing hate out of anger and spite, under the facade of social justice.

It doesn't matter if Ellen gets canceled, but research shows people typically do not fully compartmentalize their fictional relationships from their personal ones. Canceling Ellen influences a culture and mindset of canceling people in real life. Accountability is one thing, canceling is another.

Let people grow. Prisons should be for rehabilitating, children should not be forced under the threat of violence, and forgive the people around you. And forgive yourself

I could certainly practice that myself a little more.

Lol this took 12 hours on procreate. Referenced my Chinese Evergreen 🥺 This concept was actually sketched in 2017 but I can't find the original!