Not excusing anyone who jumps at judgement, but this illustrates the importance of protecting the integrity of due process. People have over time seem many cases of due process being corrupted by money, power or just incompetence. Many times it has happened to them. Due process is often opaque, complex and lengthy so they decided to bring that in-house and make their own judgements.
I have learned to fight the instinct to judge because many times I judged very very sure of my conclusions, only to find put some time later how completely wrong I was. It's scary, how a rational person can feel so righteous and yet be so wrong. As a rule I try never to make a decision on the same day I receive information. You'd be surprised how much your opinion can change once you digest your info.
>People have over time seem many cases of due process being corrupted by money, power or just incompetence. Many times it has happened to them. Due process is often opaque, complex and lengthy so they decided to bring that in-house and make their own judgements.
I doubt that's the case here. People just love maltreating someone for a "good cause". It's the most delicious of moral treats.
> People just love maltreating someone for a "good cause". It's the most delicious of moral treats.
My theory is that people do it (hey I do it too) to get the kick of "look at that piece of shit, I'm glad compared to them I'm a better/smarter/etc person.".
look at that piece of shit, I'm glad compared to them I'm a better/smarter/etc person
I mean, that’s the entire basis of human ego. That’s never going away. It’s the reason we have in-groups and out-groups. Nations and foreigners. We had slaves and free people for this very reason.
If the requirement is to get rid of that kind of thinking, then get ready to simply deal with this forever. Because that type of thinking is human nature, and it’s never going away.
We need fixes that acknowledge and align with human nature.
The next part of that theory of mine is that with a community, you can feel good without needing to look down on others, maybe it's as simple as being too busy laughing with friends to be looking for those faults in strangers. Maybe it's knowing that no one's perfect but you like them anyway (e.g. some of your friends might have dumb views but you enjoy their company anyway and don't shun them).
So the loneliness epidemic is making assholes out of all of us.
I also think that feeling prosperous means you're friendlier to the less fortunate (e.g. refugees). Europe suffered austerity under the Merkel/Schaüble regime and they don't see themselves as prosperous, so they have bile against the people who had to abandon their properties and communities, fleeing bombs and bullets.
I wish I could find surveys to prove that idea, I just have the feeling that rich Norway is more welcoming towards refugees, compared to e.g. less rich Poland (citation needed...).
> I mean, that’s the entire basis of human ego
...No, it's not?
Plenty of people make the basis of their ego "look at me, at the things I'm capable of," with no reference to anyone else's capability.
If your ego is reliant on not merely being good yourself, but on being better than everyone around you, then it sounds like you've got some serious insecurities to work out...?
If your ego is elevated in anyway, you might want to work on yourself a bit.
Ground yourself and don't focus on whether or not you are better than someone else. Just be content that you're not better, not worse, not the same, not different, just a person.
Fighting the instinct to judge is really important.
Both my father and I have excellent “gut feelings” to the point that “I hate being right” is the family motto.
It would be so easy to believe I’m always right in my judgement of people. But I’m extremely wrong at least 5% of the time.
If nothing else, that 5% helps me learn to read people better. If I didn’t reserve judgment, that 5% would quickly become 50%.
> It's scary, how a rational person can feel so righteous and yet be so wrong.
This is such an important idea to me. We all really only live in our own lives, and even if we read and talk to others endlessly, it's very hard to learn the full scope of the world and others' struggles. So there's some hubris to thinking that you fully understand things and can judge them absolutely.
Not saying there's no right and wrong, just that maybe reserving judgment has its place. I mostly think about this to coach myself, but I think it has use for others as well.
Something similar to this is my personal stance against the death penalty, where I think in the grand scheme of uncertainty, we should err on the side of caution by drawing the line before taking lives in an institutionalized fashion.
there is no due process in most situations, courts are the exception and not the rule
the only fix I can think of is having a "don't shit where you eat" attitude and just keeping everything cleanly compartmentalized
"Due process" did its job perfectly as it should have in the author's case. But exoneration still didn't save his life from falling apart. It's not a legal or policy issue, it is a culture issue.