I thought about writing about crime. The fact crime pays. We could discuss if this is true but there's no need to. It's a fact it does and each one of us knows there are more criminals out than inside of prison. The fact you are in prison doesn't mean you are a criminal. History proved it. In the past, we humans, the higher animal of the food chain or is it a pyramid, locked up and killed more innocent persons than those who deserved it. It's true what I lately read: Lady Justice is blind, she doesn't care about justice and if you ask me she lost her intuition and can't tell the difference between what's right and what's wrong. Perhaps they should have taped her mouth close instead of blindfolding the lady with the scales. Those scales are a symbol for something we no longer know what it means. They remind me of old, medieval marketplaces where crooks tried to make you believe 0.5 kilograms is a kilo. If you really believed or wanted whatever was weighted the lie became true and you pay the full amount.
Stupidity, being naive, trust someone on his word is the dumbest thing one can do. You nearly ask for being fooled if you don't check what they try to sell you. I assume each language has phrases that refer to our own laziness and stupidity. If you are scammed you can only blame yourself. You put trust in someone, most likely a person you don't know for real and you stepped into the trap he set for you. It's a bit like how lady Justice works although I believe too she will give you whatever you want if you are willing to pay. Pay enough.
Prisons are the dumping resort for those who don't fit into society. A society a group of people build so they feel safe. Of course, they are in charge and at the top of the hierarchy and the rest is somewhere down there. At a place where they are checked, controlled and if possible work hard to make the top richer. A top of preferable men because women suffer from emotions, periods and might feel pity for some poor bastard (Thatcher, Merkel and Kaag are exceptions and back in future there were more). A woman with a voice and money (read power) is a danger. Madhouses are great places to dump whoever you don't like especially women. It was Konsalik who wrote Entmündigt a by now not such a new (modern) book any longer but still worth reading. It explains how we humans think, act and what greed and 'no power' does to us. The idea that humans and humane are identical is a myth. Animals are what we call humane and the human is the beast.
Australia was the dumping resort for good old England once. Another great book is Mary Bryant, not a difficult read. I always thought somehow those "criminals" managed to build a country without too much killing. Killing for the time they lived in, that time England was a smelly place, London stank and no one cared about you. Stealing a piece of bread was good enough to be deported to an island far away. It was an opportunity to start something new if you survived the tortures, travel, lack of food, winter but it was a chance. A better one than the be hanged or spend the rest of your miserable life dirty and drugged, tied up in a madhouse. How life looked like in the good old days? One flew over the Cuckoo's nest is, nurse included, the good, humane version. It all depends on the story told and "it's for your own good" is a version that works till today.
If it comes to right and wrong (let's forget about that blindfolded woman with the scales) it doesn't only depend on who you are but also where you live. It has everything to do with norms, values, left, right and nothing in between. Like it or not but you have to pick a side even Switzerland has. If you are a slow thinker and don't agree you are a terrorist, an enemy of whoever it may concern. Jails are great places to lock these people in even innocent people, victims of envy and greed.
Indeed there's nothing new (underneath the horizon as we say), it's all old news.
Crimes pay and that's why so many lies, cheat scams. No one would do it if it was rare to get away with it. Those examples ending up in prison? They do not impress anyone. Perhaps cutting off hands will be like the Taliban intends to start with. It might look a bit bloody but with all those horrors we watch daily and enjoy we have no right to judge. Besides we are doing the same to our fellow people already shout "I kill you" if the dog keeps barking or someone touches our car. We blame others for our fear and stupidity, lack of courage and self-esteem since a scapegoat does make us feel better and preferable we see it with a rope around its neck hung up at the highest tree (of course in the centre of town).
Crime... we only say it's wrong if it doesn't involve us, if it comes to the neighbour it's fine to punish him as long as it benefits us. Although our pockets are emptied by the biggest criminals in the country and world we keep paying them. Mafia, drugs dealer, Big Pharma, Government, Big Tech, scammers, hackers... If it comes to it they are the same. They act the same, know each other and protect each other and no matter how much we pay them they will never be satisfied. Crime pays because we are too blind to see what's going on. We believe in the fairy tale we tell ourselves and pay the bill and by paying we agree and say: it's fine with me. You can treat me worse than your dog, feel free to use me.
Crime is wrong and just like you, I one taught of waiting about it before. I think building the prisons are a way of correcting most if not all their anormalities so they can be reintroduced back into the society