'You've got to get the ordinary man into the state in which he says "Sadism" automatically when he hears the word Punishment.' And then one would have carte blanche. Mark did not immediately follow this. But the Fairy pointed out that what had hampered every English police force up to date was precisely the idea of deserved punishment. For desert was always finite: you could do so much to the criminal and no more. Remedial treatment, on the other hand, need have no fixed limit;it could go on till it had effected a cure, and those who were carrying it out would decide when that was. And if cure were humane and desirable, how much more prevention? Soon anyone who had ever been in the hands of the police would come under the control of the NICE; in the end, every citizen.
C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength
No comments:
Post a Comment