The sci-fi thriller “White Bear” unfolds to a future society
that punishes criminals in a fashion much different from that of ours in
America. This allowed me to reflect on the concepts of what justice is and
should be. It also allowed me to reflect on our current justice system and areas
that improvements could be made.
Unfortunately,
I wish I could say that the idea of using criminals for entertainment was a
purely fictional concept but history has shown us the truth. Was it not the
Romans who fed criminals to lions in the great coliseum while the masses
watched for entertainment? In fact, some
of these “criminals” weren’t even murderers but simply followed the faith of
Christianity which was outlawed by the Roman government at the time. As their
flesh was ripped from their bodies by starved beasts the crowds roared.
What about today though? The world
has evolved right? Well…it seems our evolution has a lot more to do with
geography. In other words, it has a lot to do with where you were born and
raised. Let’s look at North Korea for example where concentration camps are still
using “criminals” for entertainment, means of labor and just about anything
else deemed necessary. In a society where you are beheaded for possessing a
Bible, is it that far fetched to think that if technology permitted, mind wipes
and extreme abuses of this technology would not be used?
I think this is part of the emotion
we feel while watching White Bear. While we may find these concepts hard to
stomach, in the back of our minds we know that humanity is fully capable of
such atrocities and that if this technology existed while it may not be used in
the exact fashion being depicted, more than likely it will be abused by the
oppressive.
I thank God
that I live where I do and have the opportunities to enjoy the freedoms that I
have. With our freedom, we as Americans have the responsibility of ensuring
that we have a strong and moral justice system that protects the freedoms of the
innocent and offers a morally just system of conviction to those who pose a
threat to the freedom of the innocent while continuing to respect the humanity
of those convicted. As a forerunner in
technological development, it is also our responsibility to ensure that our
developments in technology will be used for the greater good of humanity and
not the reverse.
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