The captured villains will be imprisoned for kidnapping. When Elena, the FBI agent, discusses this outcome with Dalgetty, she wants them to be imprisoned but:
"Her eyes rested on him, unsure, a little frightened. 'Federal prison psychiatrists have Institute training,' she murmured. 'You'll see that his personality is reshaped your way, won't you?'
"'As far as possible,' Simon said." (p. 154)
No! Imprison kidnappers and offer them voluntary rehabilitation programs but otherwise respect their mental integrity. If imprisoned, I would want to be helped, educated and trained but not reshaped. The UN Secret Service and the Institute operate on an "the end justifies the means" basis that will be their undoing.
In Anderson's Harvest of Stars, Anson Guthrie exists only as a personality recorded in an artificial neural network. One of the most reprehensible crimes of Guthrie's enemies is that they produce extra copies of Guthrie loyal to them! Fortunately, these do not last long.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I agree with this rejection of the compulsory reshaping or brainwashing of people. Ideas of the kind we see here were probably among the reasons why Anderson eventually became dissatisfied with the Psychotechnic series.
See? Sometimes even I can agree with you! (Laughs)
Ad astra! Sean
The basic reason we imprison people is because they've shown that they lack the capacity to exist in our society without injuring others.
Without changing them, it's unsafe to release them.
(The secondary reason is retaliation: "Your eye shall not have pity, but a life in exchange for life, an eye in exchange for an eye, a tooth in exchange for a tooth, a hand in exchange for a hand, a foot in exchange for a foot.” Which, incidentally, was an attempt to -limit- retaliation, originally.)
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree. If we are going to eschew forcibly "reshaping" criminals, then the only alternatives are to imprison or execute them. A convict who is imprisoned long enough might at least be to do much harm if released.
Yes, the Lex Talionis of the Old Testament was an attempt at limiting retaliation.
Ad astra! Sean
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