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Mythical
tribal psychology as a basis for legislation
David Blunkett,
the Home Secretary, is said to be planning to introduce a scheme
for cutting the sentence of criminals who apologise to their victims.
This is described as 'restorative justice', and is said to have
been pioneered by Maori tribes in New Zealand. We should all know
by now how strong a drive there is revert to tribalism, but taking
the Maoris as models is making it pretty explicit.
Apparently
this is supposed to produce 'closure' in the victim's psychology,
and make him feel better about it. So, as in so many other areas,
fictitious tribal psychology is to become the basis for legal
prescriptions. It is quite bad enough that it should be the basis
for social judgements and persecution beyond the reach of the
law, as it was throughout my education. My father, for example,
could be interpreted as needing 'closure' for the conflicts of
my education when he drove me out of house and home to 'earn a
living' at the end of it, instead of supporting me in my plans
to take a degree under my own auspices in order to seek readmission
to a university career. Not that this was the only interpretation
which was applied to his actions, nor was it particularly compatible
with most of them, but it was one of the range of socially acceptable
interpretations, none of which bore any relation to reality, except
perhaps by their inversion of it.
The fact that
the educational system is run on fictitious tribal psychology
as applied by the tribal elders means that it is beyond the reach
of a legal system which arose to protect the territorial rights
of individuals. There should be concern at the lack of legal protection
and redress for the underage victim, whose life can be so severely
damaged.
Rewarding
criminals for apologising to their victims is rewarding social
dishonesty. It does the victim no good, apart from the mythical
sense of 'closure' which he is supposed to obtain from it, and
the wrongfully convicted person who is too honest to pretend to
accept the tribal judgement against him is to be regarded as even
more criminal and deserving of punishment.
Similarly,
I have always been regarded and treated as a criminal because
I never pretended to find acceptable or reasonable society's judgement
of me as an appropriate person to be sent packing and exiled from
a university career. The longer the period of time for which I
have continued to maintain my position and to work for reinstatement
in the academic world, the more explicit and obvious have become
my relegation to the status of criminal and outcast.
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