By the way, I sometimes post the following which shocks people. Now, the following may chase some people away from Treeleaf, because what I am about to say is still too radical. However, we are coming to such a day whether we like it or not:
I am looking forward to the day in which we can identify within the brains of likely violent individuals the triggers of anger and violent acts, and treat criminal behavior by a means other than incarceration and/or before it occurs. We will be able to "flip 'off' the switches" that trigger violence in violent criminal minds. We will be able to "flip 'on' the switches" that gives rise to a peaceful inner nature, empathy for other human beings, love, generosity and the like. (Brain research is showing that it is rarely if ever just a single region of the brain, or single gene or the like, that would be the trigger for any aspect of human behavior, but a complex interaction. Still, I am confident that we can "flip those switches" someday). We will learn what gives rise to a brain that can commit genocide such as in Darfur, or may walk into a school such as Sandy Hook, and we will learn to treat that brain as if it had a disease to be cured ... much as we treat contagious individuals with typhoid even if against their will, all to prevent their infecting others.
https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2...s-domain/?_r=0
When I was a chaplain volunteer for a Zen group in a maximum security prison in Florida a few years ago, I had a small taste of what our prisons are like. Inhumane. Leaving people in horrible prisons is the cruelty.
I hope we can soon hold a solution where, someday, violence can be regulated and controlled within the human brain so these individuals can be returned to productive life.
For example, how about an implant that would be able to detect hormonal releases and neurological impulses associated with anger/violence and chemically counter-act them before the person has a chance to do harm? That seems a far cry from the "lobotomy" or other crude drug means as has been attempted in the past (in case some may think that is what I am proposing). I would like to see violent individuals robbed simply of their tendency to extreme anger and violence, leaving the rest of their humanity.
I think the mechanism can be far simpler than we may imagine, and is already being developed. How? It is possible to detect in the blood and nervous system certain chemical, hormonal and other physiological changes associated with anger, aggression and the like. In a violent individual, a devise can be implanted inside the body that, upon detecting such chemical and hormonal changes indicating the onset of an angry mood in the body, would release various mood altering drugs into the body to sooth the individual or otherwise counteract their desire to act upon the anger.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0531082603.htm
The system to impose such a mechanism would be as we have today: A trial by jury perhaps, with the testimony and agreement of a team of specialist doctors. It is much as we now use to toss people into hell hole prisons for decades or the electric chair. One thing is that the device would likely be removable if some error was made, unlike our situation now in which we are incarcerating and executing some innocents.
Now why do I support the development of such technology which seems so frighteningly "Clockwork Orange"?
It is simply because, as a lawyer and former Zazen prison volunteer (and just someone who follows the news), I know that American's current prison system is dehumanizing, itself cruel and violent, and truly ruinous of lives. It is our prisons that are truly destructive of human rights and dignity. I would like to see a system in which people have a choice whereby, in selecting to have such a device implanted, they can opt to stay out of prison and otherwise be able to have a decent and free life.
Here is one case where it has been done for years, although the methods used until now have been very unsophisticated.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/ar...der-woman.html
In fact, I am sorry to say this ... but it is only a matter of time, and the technology is around the corner. We had best start talking about the ethics of it all so that (like a gun or a knife) the tool is not misused.
If someone worries that what I propose is somehow an infringement on "human rights", they should think both of the "human rights" of the victims of violent offenders, and the "human rights" of the violent offenders themselves when locked away for years in the squalid hell holes we call our prisons.