Justice, Revenge, and Punishment

When we say "We are going to make an example of him", what do we mean?

What is the purpose of inflicting pain and violence on others in the name of "justice"?


Revenge is Payback

Should an angry parent be spanking a child?  Is the spanking about revenge or helping the child become a better person?  Is the parent working through their frustration or helping the child to think morally?

Is the grownup inflicting pain through spanking going to be a better person for the act?

What is the effect on the child to know that anger expressed as violence drives its pain?  What lesson is really being taught to the child?

Why would we think its wrong when a stranger spanks our child but assume its right when we do?

How is society different when it inflicts pain on an individual who commits a crime?  When society acts in anger and revenge does society become better?

Irony or hypocrisy?

Are humans more likely to stop their criminal behavior because they have had violence or pain inflicted upon them?

Punishment is too often about revenge.

Retaliation may be momentarily gratifying, but it is not a sound basis for law or education.

Retaliation is about spite and vindictiveness.  Taking joy in the delivering pain to others dehumanizes us.

Increasing the severity of punishment makes us feel like we are hurting the criminal.  We desire to inflict pain upon them.  When our law becomes about revenge, we lower ourselves to the level of the crime.  When we  use our anger and pain as the tool of expressing justice, we subvert it.


Means to and End

The purpose of of punishment is to stop a child or criminal from actions that are bad for themselves or society.  The purpose of punishment should never be so that the victim of bad behavior gets vengeance.  Vengeance is morally wrong.

There are four kinds of punishment; physical, verbal, withholding, and penalty.

Physical and verbal punishment have been shown in research to not work (see here and here).  Physical and verbal punishment may make us feel better, but simply do not accomplish the goal of justice.

Withholding and penalty punishments have been shown to be strong behavior modifiers.  Systems of justice based on withholding and penalty create a better society for individuals to live in.

People get better when they acknowledge they did wrong and strive to change.  This change toward better behavior ought to be the goal of justice.

Change comes from the inside.  It is our desire to be better that engenders change.  Change enforced from the outside rarely works.

Physical Punishment

A swat on the bottom is a mild physical punishment.  While it may do no permanent physical harm, it does not help the child develop a conscience. Instead, it teaches that physical violence is an acceptable way of dealing with problems.

Many of us grew up with being spanked and think we came out "OK". When you were spanked, how often was anger involved?  When you spank, how often is your desire for revenge involved?  What is the real lesson that was taught?  If we look at our own souls in the mirror can we not say there could have been a better way?  Is using violence to solve problems what we want to teach our children?

If this is wrong, why are other body parts right?

Parents who use physical punishment are setting an example of using violence to settle problems or solve conflicts, Children imitate their parents’ behavior. When parents use physical punishment, children are more likely to use violent acts to settle their conflicts with others.

Consider that if there is a way to teach the child that does not involve violence, why are you using violence?  

Teachers are able to maintain disciplined classrooms without resorting to violence.  It shows that there are other effective means of achieving discipline.

Physical punishment of criminals also has been shown not to be effective in changing behaviors.  Physical pain allows the individual to think they have "paid for the error".  It isolates the error behavior and the punishment as a single transaction.  Physical punishment frees a person from feelings of remorse.  Without remorse, there is no change to behavior.

When thinking about physical punishment, is may help to remember an ironic old saying "The beatings will continue until morale improves."  Morale or morality never improves because of violence.


Verbal Punishment

His concern is not justice.

Verbal aggression is just words right?  As the nursery rhyme says "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me".  This rhyme simply is not factual.

Words have the power to shape our minds.  Words can do great good or evil upon our persons.  Research shows children who are verbally abused are almost twice as likely to become juvenile delinquents or adult criminals.

Verbal aggression toward adults frequently leads to more violent acts by the criminal.  Telling someone off, giving them a piece of our minds is about our desire to express our emotion and not about changing the behavior of the person who did the crime.

Verbal punishment is too often really a form of bullying.  Violence of the mind is still violence upon our person.


Withholding

A time for reflection.

Withholding could be a "time out" or a "take away".  When an action or object of desire is removed from a child they have to deal with their desire as a result of the punishment.  Dealing with desire for a toy or freedom to play sets up a situation where the child can evaluate what they have done.  Time for self reflection is where we develop our conscious and learn to control our will.

Isolating a person from what it wants give it time to reflect.  Isolating a child is not about punishment, rather about education.  When we give a child a "time out" we help them become better.

Removing criminals from society is an effective means of giving them time to reflect on their crime.  Putting a bunch of criminals together in a crowded room often can subvert the purpose of isolation, however the failings of our current criminal justice system are not the topic of this blog entry.   Removing criminals from society also protects society from the bad actors.

Sometimes a person can never learn to be better; perhaps they are mentally ill or psychopathic.  In these cases it may never be possible to return a criminal person to normal society.  For the protection society  the criminals permanent removal is a necessary tragedy for both society and the criminal.


Penalty Punishment

Is this Justice?  Will it make their society better?

Consequences teach responsibility.  The world in which we live are full of consequences.  Often using the real world consequences of actions can help motivate us to change our behaviors.

Penalty punishments are about  using consequences, results of our actions, to change our behavior.  Penalty punishments are not about doing violence upon our persons or minds.

To be effective, penalty punishments must engage the person to do better.  The errant child or convicted criminal needs to see they must change what they do in the future.

To be effective, penalty punishments must relate the penalty to the offense.  If one doesn't wash their clothes, then they must either be naked or wear dirty clothes.  If one doesn't brush their teeth, their teeth will rot.  If one doesn't do their homework, they will fail in school.


Deterrence and Discipline

If our goal is deterrence then it is not the severity of the punishment, but the certainty of the punishment that matters.

If a person thinks they can get away with crime, they are more apt to try it.  If a person is fairly sure they will get caught, they will be deterred.

The death penalty only stops people from doing a crime if they think they will be caught.  A less severe penalty will also deter if the potential criminal knows they will be caught.

Severe punishment is about revenge.

Teaching discipline through non-violent means

There is a world of difference between "discipline" and "punishment".

Discipline is about learning to control one's actions.  Discipline can be learned without punishment.  Discipline can be learned by example, practice and reason.  We can teach our children discipline through sports, chores, and the example of our lives.

When we use the world "discipline" as a synonym for "punishment" we are often trying to justify to ourselves our desire to do violence.

The more effective we are at teaching good behaviors, the less need there is for punishment.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure in justice as well as medicine.

So where do you draw the line between justice and revenge?



Note: If you think spanking is a good thing, here is a pamphlet used to train teachers about effective discipline from the Virginia Tech.

Idea Vacuum

Ideas are neutral.

Ideas by themselves have no right or wrong, good or evil.

Actions can be right or wrong.

Actions can do good or evil.

Reading a Sherlock Holmes story about a murder does not make the reader or the writer a murderer.  The idea of 'murder' in the story is neutral.

Someone who read about a murder in a Sherlock Holmes story and then committed a murder should be condemned for the act of murder, not for the reading of a Sherlock Holmes story.

Without an understanding of what evil is, we are unable and unprepared to avoid it.  How can we recognize evil if we do not learn about it?

Ignorance of bad ideas is not safe.  Acting like the mythical ostrich and burying our head in the sand does not make acts of evil go away.  The ostrich is more likely to be eaten by the wolves with its head buried.

The trick is to learn how to filter our actions based on what we have learned.  The more we learn, the less ignorant we are, the more capable we are of recognizing good, the more apt we will do good.

Have a vacuum cleaner mind and suck up those ideas, clean ones, dirty ones, and ones in-between.  Sometimes it is good when life sucks!

Bearing Arms

 The constitution is neutral about what kinds of arms we choose to bear.   

We citizens, however, seem to have a preconceived notion of which kinds of arms we want to bear. 

The debate never seems to get to chemical, nuclear, biological, weapons.  No one is advocating we all should be able to buy tanks or aircraft carriers.  

The strongest and perhaps most dangerous arms we possess are our minds, which we often choose not to bear at all.

It seems rather that we have a narrow historical view of "the good old days".  An imaginary past that we wish to cherish for its strengths and ignore for it failures.

Annus Quotes LIII

Once again it is the anniversary of my mother's labor pains. Thanks for that Mom!

For a year I have been inflicting an agony upon my Facebook friends of art, reflection, and practice writing sentences.  Every day, usually before breakfast, I would meditate on the previous day's experiences and try to come up with a single sentence about something learned.  By doing it each day, it forced me to take a little time to put things in perspective.  Public posting was a way to cause more effort (public failure is harsher) and perhaps gain some token of quality by having to communicate the ideas to others.

The first was "With each breath, i use myself up."
The other book end was "Every day I breathe is a good day."


The idea came from videos on YouTube where someone had taken a picture of themselves every day for a year.  When played as a movie, you could see them change in a new and surprising way.  Not being much of a photographer, writing seemed a better personal approach.

Some of these "fortune cookies" I'm quite proud of.  Others not so much.

The next project, already underway, is to find images that can go with the thoughts. This should provide me with more time to consider the observed experience and get an even better view.

The reflective practice will continue but not necessarily result in sharing.


Here below is a the complete set in order.

"With each breath, i use myself up." ~ 1
"If laughter is the best medicine, then anger is the worst disease." ~ 2
"The law does not make me a good husband." ~ 3
"Although i gently row with intent, the storms of fate contain my destiny." ~ 4
"The milk of human kindness curdles with intemperance." ~ 5
"What measure of of devotion shall i give to those of seven score and ten years on who struggle to both divide and unite us?" ~ 6
"Where shall i draw the line that divides justice from revenge?" ~ 7
"Vacuum cleaner minds suck up scads of dirty ideas." ~ 8
"Memories are the silt which determine the flow of our lives" ~ 9
"The cloud's silver lining still looks like a bunny from the inside." ~ 10


"The wonder of existence and the doubt of meaning in it unite us all." ~ 11
"All order is temporary." ~ 12
"Did anyone cut in line when they were handing out the loaves and fishes?" ~ 13
"The ruler may make the measure of a society, but the subject is what it is all about." ~ 14
"The power of an early hour shower turns dour to flower." ~ 15
"The river of greed overflowed its money banks and put many houses underwater." ~ 16
"Width, height, depth, time, gravity, magnetism, and information are all indirectly sensed dimensions." ~ 17
"We hide from our children how repetitious adulthood can be." ~ 18
"To find something you search, but to know something you re-search."~ 19
"Is it better to serve a rich man or a poor man?" ~ 20


"Love seeks the greatest good, markets seek the greatest value." ~ 21
"The day I truly began to live was the day I realized I was going to die." ~ 22
"Culture is made anew when we break our habits." ~ 23
"Everyone drives too fast; except when i'm behind them." ~ 24
"Ignorance is never a virtue."  ~ 25
"We depend upon the hormones of adolescence to determine our genetic destiny." ~ 26
"When i stop learning, i stop growing." ~ 27
"Living inside our own myth feels real." ~ 28
"Romance comes from hormones, love comes from service." ~ 29
"Liberty with out reason leaves us slave to our desires." ~ 30


"In-finite means not-finite as e-ternity means not-time." ~ 31
"Ignorance can be educated, stupidity only sheltered." ~ 32
"War begets immorality." ~ 33
"The good-old-days ideas function only so long as the good-old-days conditions prevail." ~ 34
"It is never safe to stop fighting, but you will never be safe until you do."~ 35
"Thinking about thinking is the harmonic of the soul." ~ 36
"An unintended direction often leads to the discovery of beauty." ~ 37
"Is it vanity to wish to stand on the shoulders of taller giants?" ~ 38
"A student of dogma only graduates after passing a reality test." ~ 39
"Worry about one's virtue is not religion specific." ~ 40


"Our children know our weaknesses first hand making their love all the more dear." ~ 41
"Freedom is sibling to both fear and trust ." ~ 42
"Chores shadows profile play's delight." ~ 43
"Following your heart only works if you have a well informed head." ~ 44
"It takes more than one movement a day to keep the hemorrhoids away." ~ 45
"Shall the coveted man have recourse?" ~ 46
"All journeys require me to practice, observe and adapt." ~ 47
"Self esteem is a consequence of self control." ~ 48
"Child's emotions are tyrants which we must parentally usurp." ~ 49
"There is a limit to how many decisions I can make each day, so mostly things just happen." ~ 50


"Beauty derives its value from the attention we give it." ~ 51
"Should I ever let my world be dominated by Us and Them?" ~ 52
"Faith without doubt is meaningless." ~ 53
"Love and wisdom are both flames to be passed on with care." ~ 54
"Can sincerity ever be forced?" ~ 55
"Shall I be my brothers keeper before  he is ill and old?" ~ 56
"It is fantastic to live in an age of great discovery, but disappointing to not have lived after it." ~ 57
"Collective radical belief encourages evil acts to occur." ~ 58
"When I'm content, fatigue is an unheeded burden." ~ 59
"Fortune favors the friendly." ~ 60


"Experience is my filter for the future." ~ 61
"We all leave our own unique trail of mistakes." ~ 62
"A message unread is only a thought." ~ 63
"When I look at my own foolishness, suffering others is easy." ~ 64
"Order congeals as energy dissipates." ~ 65
"Old wise men come from young fools." ~ 66
"When should I ever stand between you and your god?" ~ 67
"Learning when to release anger is a big step toward maturity." ~ 68
"A proportion of rest is necessary to grow." ~ 69
"Curiosity is the wellspring of innovation." ~ 70


"When does my humility to others out weigh my self reliance?" ~ 71
"Addictive activities relieve boredom." ~ 72
"Are these States ever United?"~ 73
"Compared to the universe i have little matter to matter at all." ~ 74
"We reveal ourselves by opportunity and trust." ~ 75
"A good question searches an answer." ~ 76
"With no sense of the scale of time, children and dogs think now is an eternity." ~ 77
"The chip on my shoulder is much heavier than it appears."~ 78
"An appropriate apology is a sign of strength." ~ 79
"The scale at which we live defines our expectations." ~ 80


"Sometimes faith is when we believe against all the facts." ~ 81
"A taste of wine is rarely a waste of time." ~ 82
"We begin and end equal before the law, in all else we differ." ~ 83
"Does acknowledgment of an idea provide it advocacy?" ~ 84
"With death certain, fear only wastes time." ~ 85
"Should I ever express pity?" ~ 86
"Friendships form at a slower pace as we age." ~ 87
"Is it better to live a long life or a good life?" ~ 88
"Until men can have babies, will we ever have equality?" ~ 89
"Night is everywhere, it is sunlight that is rare." ~ 90


"Fences keep out bad neighbors and good." ~ 91
"Some goals take many lifetimes." ~ 92
"I am wisest when silent, thereby foolish here." ~ 93
"If god doesn't play dice with the universe, then there is no free will." ~ 94
"Every person has their own version of the truth." ~ 95
"The fragility of each moment is broken before we even know it exists." ~ 96
"Is changing the rules to favor a few cheating?" ~ 97
"Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, no one wants to admit they are an animal." ~ 98
"I learn more when reading things I don't agree with." ~ 99
"Bitter pills provide moral fiber." ~ one-hundred


"Liberty is blind to both lie and truth." ~ 101
"Does God speak to us only through a book?" ~ 102
"Even speaking of the future exists in the past." ~ 103
"The competition I choose limits me." ~ 104
"Sometimes the means destroy the ends." ~ 105
"No tombstone laments undone chores." ~ 106
"The price rarely contains all the costs." ~ 107
"When I give nothing a name does it become something?" ~ 108
"Does my life contain any greater blessing than life itself?" ~ 109
"Progress comes when we make the imagined real." ~ 110

"Without intervention ignorance breeds ignorance." ~ 111
"Hate helps me ignore unpleasant solutions." ~ 112
"No choice is made in a vacuum." ~ 113
"Sometimes listening is the only healing required." ~ 114
"Wealth is useless when you are annoyed." ~ 115
"If greed begets value then vice can derive virtue?" ~ 116
"My many minds have but one voice." ~ 117
"The worst slavery is to one's own emotions." ~ 118
"How quickly should my tears for a stranger dry?" ~ 119
"In the end the land will own me." ~ 120

"Memories are only a vague shadow of the past." ~ 121
"Is it worse to almost win or not to try at all?" ~ 122
"Does love ever ridicule?" ~ 123
"Fear fathers fools." ~ 124
"Even in old age the horizons of youth are hard to see beyond." ~ 125
"Standing next to the candle, it is easy to forget how big the darkness is." ~ 126
"Truth does not always fit the facts." ~ 127
"When I fail to listen I fail before I start." ~ 128
"A hundred years from now no one will remember my cares." ~ 129
"Is there a duty to make life fair?" ~ 130


"Write to be read as thoughts need no audience." ~ 131
"A lack of patience drives the great and terrible forward." ~ 132
"Unrestrained sharing of opinion tends to end politeness." ~ 133
"When I step gently my path is paved." ~ 134
"Vouching for someone gives them your name to use." ~ 135
 ~ 136
"The more common life is, the cheaper it becomes." ~ 137
"Most humans live without emergency exits." ~ 138
"Opinion without facts leads to pain." ~ 139
"Focusing on the ends gives license to the lie." ~ 140


"Maths are the wizards spells by which we control our world." ~ 141
"Fortune's harvest depends by chance where you are planted." ~ 142
"Bumper stickers rarely change minds." ~ 143
"Struggles over ideology have no victors, rather only survivors." ~ 144
"We learn by seeking the cause of the result; we act by having the cause get the result."  ~ 145
"Language itself is a metaphor of reality." ~ 146
"Is the planet earth a sacred place?" ~ 147
"Does thinking about silence destroy it?" ~ 148
"Sound and emotion fade with time and distance." ~ 149
"Aging unfolds the depth of my ignorance." ~ 150


"Can an unhappy life be saved by giving it meaning?" ~ 151
"Learning to listen is much harder than learning to speak." ~ 152
"When I obeys my belly, I obeys my enemy." ~ 153
"Are humans like clay, once broken never put anew?" ~ 154
"I love wisdom from afar." ~ 155
"Does freedom mean i have the right to be impure?" ~ 156
"Failure allows wisdom to leave a deeper mark." ~ 157
"Is morality only a retirement plan for the hereafter?" ~ 158
"Sometimes manipulating others is necessary." ~ 159
"We mostly change our existence too slowly to notice the difference." ~ 160


"Self interest is the first mover of brutes." ~ 161
"Demeaning the unfamiliar diminishes my potential." ~ 162
"Should I be moderate with moderation?" ~ 163
"Fighting taxes is like fighting death, I will most certainly lose." ~ 164
"I do good and evil more by habit than choice." ~ 165
"Simple explanations allow me to think I have control." ~ 166
"Humility allows for differences in opinion." ~ 167
"Is it necessary to tell others to make my feelings real?" ~ 168
"The hot flames of others hearts leap from their eyes only when met." ~ 169
"How can I make a habit of discovering when I'm wrong?" ~ 170


"There are no corporations in foxholes." ~ 171
"We can now destroy our world without God's help." ~ 172
"Structured struggles school saintly strength." ~ 173
"Does charity require humility in the receiver?" ~ 174
"Untamed emotion provides a blind spot to opportunity." ~ 175
"We all live in artificial bubbles of reality." ~ 176
"Government holds back anarchy so that good things can happen." ~ 177
"People who long suffer adversity are rarely angry." ~ 178
"Did Buddha grind his teeth at night?" ~ 179
"Undramatic disasters receive little attention." ~ 180


"Once belief becomes an illusion, how can it return?" ~ 181
"Speaking well is easier than acting well." ~ 182
"Thankfully, everyone is different." ~ 183 <-- Half way point
"Hunger knows not morality." ~ 184
"Does the possession of virtual objects limit avarice?" ~ 185
"The more variety I experience, the more tolerant I become." ~ 186
"When I focus on my wife's beauty more than her wisdom do I demean her?" ~ 187
"Dreams propel us from their dearth of details." ~ 188
"Borrowing the now from all possible futures, with each breath I trim the possibility of what could be." ~ 189
"Change is by default neither good nor chosen." ~ 190
"Is it better to tell myself a story of who I will become rather than a story of who I am?" ~ 191
"As humanity is more dear than I, the world is to any nation." ~ 192
"The sacred and the mundane are the same thing." ~ 193
"Without the mountain I could not have climbed so high." ~ 194
"I will be my most experienced just before I die." ~ 195
"We admire the brave for their vulnerability." ~ 196
"Just drive on, for exploration occurs at the edge of the known; let others build a road behind you." ~ 197
"Success rarely results in celebration." ~ 198
"Boredom and wanting are too often the only states of being." ~ 199
"Violence is the first act of the evil and the last act of a fool." ~ 200


"My culture values wealth over wisdom and beauty over benevolence." ~ 201
"If I keep removing one cell at a time when do I stop being me?" ~ 202
"Does a holocaust give license to the bigotry of its victims?" ~ 203
"If I put religion in my politics, do i get politics in my religion?" ~ 204
"Writing is speech to the future." ~ 205
"Can I accept that somethings are unknowable?" ~ 206
"To pass through the eye of the needle, one must be accountable for many resources." ~ 207
"I thought to make each mistake just once; only to to discover there are so many mistakes to be made." ~ 208
"May our children never learn that war contains pain and honor but no glory." ~ 209
"Since I can never fully understand myself, my choices will always have a degree of blindness." ~ 210


"It takes many years of practice to become a grouchy old man." ~ 211
"What cannot be retrieved from waste through usage?" ~ 212
"Having stayed down the rabbit hole long enough, it became familiar." ~ 213
"Because I am not the Christ, the cross on my shoulder can become a chip." ~ 214
"Money is a poor measure of love." ~ 215
"Winter is natures way of reminding me life is temporary." ~ 216
"I did not begin to understand my parents love until I became one." ~ 217
"I can only seek truth when i have no agenda." ~ 218
"When is it more important to be kind than to be right?" ~ 219
"I am composed of billions of copies of the same set of instructions read differently each time." ~ 220


"Politics is about deal making while religion is about purity."  ~ 221
"Without the humility of ignorance, I do no learn." ~ 222
"Every mirror passed is a test of mans soul." ~ 223
"Must I think evil thoughts in order to avoid them?" ~ 224
"Self replicating ideas have the best chance of survival." ~ 225
"Can good come from causing suffering?" ~ 226
"Love grows when unobserved." ~ 227
"Every age thinks its children morally corrupt and its ancestors holy, but can they all be right?" ~ 228
"The best i can hope for is that some small fraction of my life will be lived in a considered way." ~ 229
"When I encounter the new its hard to remember others come before me too." ~ 230


"Perhaps there is no path in front of us, only a fading trail behind us." ~ 231
"Self knowledge once learned can never become unknown." ~ 232
"Ideology is often trumped by the desire for resources." ~ 233
"Attempts to end violence by threats of violence  more often spiral to tragedy." ~ 234
"Should I look away from sin so i do not bear it witness?" ~ 235
"I seek the new because ignorance is more dreadful than the different." ~ 236
"Is a self reliant thief more moral than a lazy beggar?" ~ 237
"Consequences have many causes, we choose to ignore most of them." ~ 238
"Without sadness, joy becomes complacency." ~ 239
"What if money is not the most important thing?" ~ 240


"Only those who do not know the use of pens think the sword is mightier." ~ 241
"Does good require that evil also exist?" ~ 242
"Altruism by many is first experienced through their children." ~ 243
"Ad hominiem genuit ad hominiem reductio ad absurdum: Personal attacks beget personal attacks reducing all to absurdity." ~ 244
"When should the rights of the individual overwhelm the rights of the whole?" ~ 245
"If you can not argue from your opponents view, then you do not understand them." ~ 246
"If I could observe myself without knowing it, what would I learn?" ~ 247
"Can an animal be good or evil?" ~ 248
"When I say 'God is good' do I mean good transcends God?" ~ 249
"Bravery is learned from coping with failure." ~ 250


"At some point in the climbing of giants, I came to realize the responsibility to not only help others climb to their shoulders; but to help others climb higher than I have the mind or time to go." ~ 251
"We do not live on the frontier anymore; the land is settled, the predators all but gone, and the natives almost exterminated." ~ 252
 "The man with the gold tells me he wants to make the rules." ~ 253
"Automobiles are hermit crab shells for humans." ~ 254
"Cows do not understand they are being used, occasionally humans do." ~ 255
"Fandom is service to someone else's ability." ~ 256
"I woke up in someone else's dream and will die leaving a piece of mine behind." ~ 25-seven
"What skills are worth in an day, that a man of labor earns in a year?" ~ 258
"Technology both destroys and creates patterns of thought." ~ 259
"It is not the severity of punishment that deters, but the certainty of it." ~ 260


"Art is typically critiqued by those who do not create." ~ 261
"It is better to be an errored gent than to be arrogant." ~ 262
"Disguising selfishness as self-reliance is a wolf in sheep's clothing." ~ 263
"If I do not take time to know myself how can i become more?" ~ 264
"A closed mind, even when rolling, never gathers ideas." ~ 265
"Soaring laughter can ensue from a well told joke but the scant pun will illicit abysmal groans." ~ 266
"Love's service produces life's serenity." ~ 267
"Should we admire the athlete who runs faster than us, yet disdain the scientist who thinks deeper?" ~ 268
"Why is fear of the strange worse than fear of the familiar?" ~ 269
"Oh that for a brief moment I could channel the divine." ~ 270


"Violence is an unskilled and brutal teacher." ~ 271
"Without love, the immensity of the universe would overwhelm me." ~ 272
"We look in mirrors to understand ourselves." ~ 273
"Most successful civilizations eventually ruin their environment." ~ 274
"Is my fear sufficient reason to acquit me of murder?" ~ 275
"The universe appears random and we group together to improve our lot." ~ 276
"The less I want, the more I learn, the better I understand." ~ 277
"Learning is the search for beauty." ~ 278
"From the moon, humans have only recently and barely become visible." ~ 279
"Those who live in the past will eventually go there." ~ 280


"When lost is it better to pick a path imagining it true or wander aimlessly in discovery?" ~ 281
"My reality is a construct of my mind." ~ 282
"As plants require a small amount of feces, do minds require a bit of B.S. to grow strong and healthy?" ~ 283
 "Love for humanity has made my love for family stronger."~ 284
"Is a man who can not see his own failing without honor?" ~ 285
"Is any one of us more important than all of us?" ~ 286
"News organizations by definition engage in hearsay." ~ 287
"I met me and came away shamed and humbled." ~ 288
"Willful ignorance is a sin against our own lives." ~ 289
"Silence is sometimes the best argument." ~ 290


"The young live for their future while the old live from their past." ~ 291
"We rarely admit our ignorance and even less seldom attempt to correct it." ~ 292
"If wealth is a consequences of hard work then every mother should be a millionaire." ~ 293
"Self replicating ideas have the best chance of survival." ~ 294
"Facts are only the most successful myths." ~ 295
"If I attack the person rather than his idea, am i then a coward?" ~ 296
"Every human teaches as they act." ~ 297
"Is the inferior obligated to superior or visa versa?" ~ 298
"Admitting ignorance claims less attention than professing knowledge." ~ 299
"Energy and precision limit our ability to control." ~ 300


"As i destroy a pencil to create a drawing, I must destroy my preconceptions to create understanding." ~ 301
"Memories flash like fish in the mind's river." ~ 302
"Can evil ever be fought by good acts alone?" ~ 303
"Our minds are more limited by our ability to retrieve memories than make them."~ 304
"The unchallenged faith is weak." ~ 305
"A gentle mind is a rare find." ~ 306
"Is it harder for the childless to learn altruism?" ~ 307
 ~ 308
"Was Bin laden sin laden?" ~ 309
"Does not a peaceful society requires a social contract limiting freedom?" ~ 310


"Acts of kindness build respect."  ~ 311
"I am a tooth in the decay of passion." ~ 312
"The essential is invisible and silent." ~ 313
"Many wish to be magic, but none of us are." ~ 314
"Selfishness disguised as self reliance ends in a lonely existence." ~ 315
"The structure of information gives its meaning." ~ 316
"If the finite cannot become infinite, then i will surely have an end." ~ 317
"Better days later require our involvement now." ~ 318
"Pragmatism adapts to its environment." ~ 319
"Ignorance gives sanction to arrogance." ~ 320


 "Absurdity sources a myriad of hates."~ 321
"Sex and prayer are private and not for public display." ~ 322
"Love of self is only a step in learning to love others." ~ 323
"Open minds do not involve their egos in their positions." ~ 324
"In a democracy, even the ignorant vote." ~ 325
"The universe is centered neither on planet earth or our mind's ideas." ~ 326
"Some always believe the 'end is nigh' and almost all are always wrong." ~ 327
"Schools are factories of stock minds, while readers custom build theirs." ~ 328
"Security and freedom are mortal foes." ~ 329
"Willful ignorance is a cowardly cover for sin." ~ 330


"We choose to make the world a better or worse place." ~ 331
"I do not own earth, rather it owns me." ~ 332
"If we believe in an afterlife only the sinner should fear death. ~ 333
"Transcending anger and fear is necessary for progress." ~ 334
"Should we pity the adult who still makes believe?" ~ 335
"How I respond to winning and losing defines my character." ~ 336
"When personal property is too precious souls suffer." ~ 337
"Corporations exist so that a few may benefit from a many." ~ 338
"How much suffering does a fool deserve?" ~ 339
"Picking wise friends is more important the picking fun ones." ~ 340


"Does a democracy require a nobility?" ~ 341
"Thinking rewires my brain." ~ 342
"Our character is defined by how we act when no one is watching." ~ 343
"Patience wins more often than violence." ~ 344
"A quick response often reveals more of us than we wish." ~ 345
"Thinking differently is not necessarily thinking correctly. ~ 346
"If art says 'I am here' rather than 'this is beauty' is it just a form of selfishness?" ~ 347
"When should i report what is heard and not seen?" ~ 348
"We are billions of copies of the same set of instructions each realized slightly differently." ~ 349
"Adventure and stability tend to be mutually exclusive." ~ 350


"Sometimes it matters more how we die than how we live." ~ 351
"Is putting party before country a form of treason?" ~ 352
"Society's purpose not a purely an economic one, rather it is the pursuit of happiness, liberty, and life, which can be had with a minimum of resources." ~ 353
"Mothers have more often found a legacy in their children." ~ 354
"There is no evidence that future or past exist, only the moment is sensed." ~ 355
"Religion proscribes, science prescribes." ~ 356
"Creativity spawns from recombination of the existing." ~ 357
"Indirect advice has greater impact." ~ 358
"Finding the joy of the moment is often difficult, but should always be our imperative." ~ 359
"It is more important to judge oneself than others." ~ 360


"Follow a preachers deeds rather than their words." ~ 361
"Most of life is spent on the mundane." ~ 362
"The problem with a long life is that you spend most of it old." ~ 363
"Butchering animals brings me to see inside myself." ~ 364
"Every day I breathe is a good day." ~ 365

Shocking!

Meme - Suffragette Scandalous

Meme - Freedom's Edge