There’s a line in a song from Camelot, “the angels have chosen to fight their battles below.” That short line sums up a view of the world that those in favor of death and lies do everything they can to make us forget.
Just as the spiritual powers of good are at war with those of evil, so do men and women who love goodness and truth fight to preserve it against those who attack it. As we consider what those around us are doing, it’s not hard to see who’s on which side.
Truth’s deadliest enemies promote evil while pretending to do good. A couple of generations ago, the self-righteous used Prohibition as that generation’s excuse to pollute and corrupt America’s criminal justice system. Today, the world-wide “War on Drugs” gives governments more reasons to grow in power and authority to “help protect the people against the ravages of drugs.” As usual, this involves putting more people in more jails than at any earlier time in our history.
As a rule of thumb, we can estimate that each two or three people in jail provides one job for those who make a living by putting them there, keeping them there, and monitoring them when they’re released.
Seven million prisoners provide reasons to force taxpayers to fund the growing staffs of prosecutors, policemen, judges, bailiffs, clerks, wardens, guards, defense attorneys, psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, rehabilitators, computer experts to keep track of it all, payroll clerks to pay them, taxing authorities to gather the money to fund the whole operation, parole officers, contractors, unionized builders of jails, bond-issuers who provide the funding, manufacturers of all the equipment required by all those involved in the above occupations, and secretaries, janitors, and building engineers in every single office and building.
Powerful forces have powerful personal economic incentives to put more people in more jails. Hence the ever-louder drumbeats to “get tough on crime”.
