Tribal Thoughts

 I am certain that the average American has no grasp of how sick and dangerous this world actually is, how cheap life can really be, depending on where you live and what rules are set in placed and followed. There are rules in different sections of the US. It's kinda like an HOA, but instead of what color you can paint your house, it might be whether you can talk to the police or not. Every mafia guy will boast about how safe their neighborhood is, because of the mob presence. No one dares commit a crime because if they do, mafia justice will be swift and harsh. Sounds nice and rather civilized until you realize that justice is swift and harsh towards you if you cross them. So, just like an HOA. 

On YouTube there is a wide variety of videos about prison, motorcycle gangs and other 'communities' like the special forces and the adult porn world. There are a lot of weird tribes that make up America and those are just a few.

Prison is nothing but tribes and it's far more horrific than you ever imagined. Forget about the sodomy, which I've heard doesn't happen as much as people like to fear (or hope...) it does. The general, day-in, day-out obscenity of the human condition is on full display. A prison will segregate itself based on race, but also on gang affiliation. The races still mingle, mind you, because society is not ready to go back to the racial segregation of the south in the 1950's at least in prisons. I'm not sure that would matter much anyway because no matter how much you separate the races, you'll find the predators will still hunt their prey even if they look alike. Inhuman nature again. 

I don't want to spend a lot of time on the horrors of what I've seen these YT guests discuss but would rather point out the matter-a-factness of their acceptance of it. Them's the rules. You learn them quickly or you suffer the consequences, up to and including death. Like, "Well he's dead because he broke the rules". Not the warden's rules, but the ones set down by the inmates. Many prisons are pretty autonomous, and I think that the perceived powers that be- the warden and the guards- prefer it that way. Let the inmates run the asylum. It's their world and it's less work and danger for us. I kind of get that, but it's still wrong. 

You have to stop and consider where these vicious, violent reprobates came from: the streets of Anytown, USA. They are the dumb ones that got caught. Imagine what is out there walking around free. And do those free ones fear prison? They'd probably rather not be incarcerated, but in their line of work, it's part of the program. It might even be a promotion in some organizations. At the very least it's inevitable. 

Are there any deterrents in life? Maybe for you and me, for a lot of people, no. In some parts of the world and in our country in many people's minds, taking a life is just something that you had to do. It's illegal and you will get locked up for it, but you take it from there. Rich people steal and kill just like poor people do. A well-off man can catch his wife in bed with his best friend and kill one or the both of them because he feels he has been disrespected. Regardless of station in life, people make their own rules in their minds. The poor man knows prison is a consequence. The rich guy isn't considering that. They both do the deed.

Watched a guy last night talking about his time working in Saudi Arabia. Not sure what he was doing there, but he saw many public executions. The Saudis are open about executions, but they don't necessarily advertise. They would hold them in a courtyard outside the mosque and people were free to attend. Depending on the crime committed, a man might get his head cut off or lose a hand by the sword. Women get stoned to death. The first woman he saw this happen to had had a child out of wedlock via her cousin. The man didn't go into graphic detail about what he saw. He didn't have to. No doubt it's as gross as you could imagine, but the executioner's sword- swift and true- has got to be preferred to the slow, painful death of stoning. They must really hate women over there. 

The death penalty isn't much of a deterrence even where it is strictly enforced. That's inhuman nature, ain't it? People are always going to make their own rules. So will society. It has to be this way because it is this way, and no one has yet to figure out how to perfect it. They never will.