Replies

You said — “Have you ever spent any time in prison?”

—

I know you were saying that to “mamelukesabre”, but I thought I would comment.

I haven’t ever spent any time in jail or prison, but I have seen enough shows and documentaries on them to know that they are not a place I would like to spend my “living time” in... LOL...

Given that in general prisons, there is a “law of the jungle” that is operational, even though slightly modified by the rules and regulations of the prison, with guards watching — it does not seem like a type of “society” that I want to live in. In that kind of environment, assault and killings are the “way of life” if you don’t participate, cooperate or “overlook” (some things you’re not supposed to “see”). This is not “civilized” and of course, that’s what this “type of character” (these criminals and malcontents) bring to the equation. Unfortunately, there are others who don’t have the same level of “criminality” but are jailed, nonetheless, and they get to learn more about this mindset and they end up adopting it, as a matter of survival (or they’ll end up being assaulted repeatedly or killed eventually). That’s why you also have “gangs” in prison, a sort of methodology that they’ve adopted for maintaining *their type* of order (a lot of which is disorder) and for their own protection against others.

Then there are the super-max prisons (or super-max sections in a general prison), where you never see another prisoner, you never interact with one, you never has any kind of “social relations” with another human being, other than guards doing their duty in maintaining your imprisonment in the first place. And you’re placed in an isolated cell for 23 hours out of the day, only one hour out, in some sort of space, other than your own cell, and then you’re back in your 7 x 12 cell.

In all that, the freedom that all people have “on the outside” is not existent in there. A prisoner is extremely limited, and only able to perpetrate violence on other prisoners (for the most part). They don’t have choice in what they can do, how they go about doing something, and when they might want to choose to do something. It’s a total lack of control over every facet of their lives.

Anyone who says that these conditions are way too pleasant must not put too much value in freedom and being able to live freely in society. To them (i.e., who say that), apparently “freedom” is a way overrated thing... LOL...