One can never “get into” another”s world. Once can affect the world of another, but only indirectly. Society, for example, has always expected to make a criminal acquiescent and cooperative by punishing him, taking it as granted that we all live in the same world. The effect society wanted punishment to have it believed would be understood and reacted to properly by the criminal. Instead, and never more than when he pretends to be docile, repentant and reformed, the criminal sees the law as only a stupidly obverse opinion, as something he must manage his business in spite of. Also, in the inadequately socialized, punishment causes resentment and only strengthens his adverseness.
To combat crime more effectively, we must be aware of the indirect effect of our actions on others. I am reminded of the fable of the wind and the sun competing to make a traveler take off his coat. The fierce wind only causes the man to draw his coat closer about him. The gentle sun warmed the traveler and caused him to take off the coat. The wind was as those who assume we all live in the same world. The wind tried to make the man remove his coat by direct action; the sun performed an action that had the indirect effect on the man”s world, which made him desire to remove his coat. The implication is that we should so treat the criminal as to make him comply of his own will. The evidence of hundreds of years indicates he will not comply of anyone else”s will.
Dean Sparks, Lucerne
