Misanthropic Californian

I am so totally not a people person, but I’ve been seeing news that makes me inclined to have a little more faith in humanity. But a lot less faith in governments.

Something like 80% of the population of Iran supposedly wants democracy and friendly relations with the U.S. Despite that, they’re stuck with a government that likes to bring Sharia to bear, and leaders that insist on “Death to America” chants, regardless of whether there’s any real emotion behind them.

There’s also this article, based on a study that concludes that more than 80% of the American combatants in WWII refused to fire on the enemy. Normal people are instinctively reluctant to kill other people, and it’s only through careful conditioning that the military has managed to push the percentage of “battlefield conscientious objectors” down to less than 10%. And according to the article it is conditioning in an almost Pavlovian sense; soldiers drill in shooting man-shaped targets while in full gear, so that when a real battle happens they can methodically repeat the same learned behavior while barely thinking about the act of shooting another person. I don’t blame the military for taking these steps per se — soldiers are more likely to be able to do their job and live to tell the tale that way — but I think it’s another example of why well-trained volunteers are better than all the involuntary conscripts in the world. 

So, while people will no doubt continue to find ways to be awful to each other, it seems that governments have a whole hell of a lot more difficulty getting along with each other than actual human beings. Average people want to not kill other people and get along, or at least leave each other alone, while crazy government leaders find ways to start wars.

The other day I came across this article about NBC’s “To Catch a Predator” thing, and I think it articulates a lot of the reasons why I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. Whenever the show comes up on Digg or Reddit, people inevitably complain that there are issues with the show, and other people accuse those who take issue with it of supporting pedophiles. So, again, discourse is getting muddled. I can disagree with their methods while still agreeing that pursuing and prosecuting child predators is necessary.

Pedophilia is almost universally reviled, and in a very black-and-white kind of way. While I’m willing to go with the idea that an adult having sex with a minor is a bad thing, there ought to be a big difference in degree between a man seducing a high school girl (ephebophilia) and a man doing things to an elementary school boy, even if we definitely agree that both should be considered immoral and illegal. As things stand, merely being accused of such a thing can ruin a person’s life, and (according to the article) half of all who wind up registered as sex offenders for pedophilia are subject to harrassment and violence. It’s a serious crime — I wouldn’t even contemplate pretending otherwise — and that’s all the more reason to protect our notions of “innocent until proven guilty.” A guilty verdict isn’t just saying “you did this crime and you’ll go to jail for it.” It’s saying, “you’re going to be marked and despised for the rest of your life.” Maybe they do deserve that, but considering the stakes we’d better be damn sure.

While there’s certainly a place for ordinary people to step in to protect their community, I’m leery of letting untrained citizens do jobs normally reserved for trained law enforcement professionals. I wouldn’t hire some guy off the street to do marketing or surgery, and law enforcement does involve life and death situations at times. If Rolling Stone’s statements about Perverted Justice are true, I just plain don’t trust them, however important their work might be. Von Erck responded to one critic by basically doing everything in his power to destroy the man’s life, which suggest he’s more interested in humiliating and harming those he percieves as the bad guys than in helping the innocent kids. It may be necessary, but I’d be much more comfortable if the effort was helmed by someone who could respond to criticism with reasoned dialogue rather than petty vengeance that reads like something out of an Operation Clambake article.

And of course, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that you could go to jail for propositioning a fictional 14-year-old. I know that that’s how the laws work (at least in most states) and that there are reasons for it, but still. It hurts my head.

And then there’s the issue of turning the whole thing into entertainment. As I said, you’d better be damn sure before you destroy someone’s life, and in my opinion the media ought to strive to be responsible in that regard every bit as much as the justice system. Fortunately NBC and the public have limits, and the show is on its way to being canceled.