Have you ever thought of making a manifesto? Like, a warning to other sapient species, so that they don’t repeat our mistakes?
I acknowledge that there’s flaws (like what if they can’t read it), but it could also help others avoid the path humanity has taken. What do you think?
"I've thought about it quite frequently. As an avid reader myself, I've always imagined writing a piece of my own, but I've never gotten around to putting it down on paper."
"Some of the key points that I'd like to hit are how retributive justice tends to be a total structural failure, how punishment systems incite calculation of potential consequences and their weight against the crime itself rather than genuinely incentivizing moral behavior, the amplification of corrosion as a result of economic systems, and how society overall is built on controlled antagonism. Crime becomes an analysis of risk over reward, and any concept of deterrence would assume the presence of rationality to begin with -- which individuals tend to show, time and time again, that they do not possess.
"'Criminals' are a self-fulfilling prophecy, as once someone is labeled as such, they are socially ostracized, more likely to fail socially and economically, and recidivism is incredibly likely. True retribution is fundamentally impossible, especially in fatal cases. Death will never bring back the dead. All fatal punishment is symbolic in the most grotesque sense, and does nothing but flatter the human urge for sensationalized justice. Revenge may feel satisfying from a psychological standpoint, but satisfaction alone can never constitute justice.
"Ultimately, humans are born to rebel. You'll notice how common it is for kids and teenagers to retaliate against their parents for the sake of it, and the same applies to adults. Prohibition results in desire, and the more rigid you make a system, the worse you make this natural inclination towards contrarianism.
"Economic systems make it worse -- in command economies, black markets and rebellion will persist regardless of any attempt at government control. In pure market economies, money becomes a substitute for morality. Of course, in the TRC, social classes were relatively balanced, though there were still notable shortcomings. Take Kurara and Gaku, for example... but I digress.
"All systems rely on threat and coercion; assume that, because humans can't manage themselves on an individual level, individuals must manage other humans; and fear chaos more than gross injustice. There's a sort of natural karmic cycle -- oppression incites resentment, resentment encourages wrongdoing, wrongdoing accrues punishment, punishment brings instability, and instability causes harsher enforcement.
"A liveable structure would require removing survival from market influence, separating justice from vengeance, and prioritizing rehabilitation instead of punishment. Unfortunately, humans are far too set in their ways to ever cultivate a successful reform. Consent of the governed can never truly exist when they fall into staggering hierarchies as easily as they draw breath into their decaying lungs. They're destructive, reactive, and will never overcome the intrinsic ugliness that has lied at the very core of humanity since the very gestation of the species."
"Ah, I didn't mean to go off on such a tangent... but, again, I've thought about creating a manifesto quite frequently, as you can tell. I didn't actually plan on making it for another sapient species, though; I thought I may be able to get through to some others... even I allow myself wishful thinking, sometimes."
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