Knowing versus 'Knowing' 195If incarceration is not the answer, then what about re-education? If we
train them, then they should see the error of their ways and reform, right?
Wrong. You see, they really are savages, and words mean nothing to them.
Instead, the only language which they understand is brute force. If we want
to communicate with them, we must speak in terms of force.
Ah, what we need then is boot camp. Treat them like the marines: “Yes,
sir! No, sir! I will polish my boots and do four hundred more pushups,
Sir!” While this approach may have some benefits, I suggest that it also
suffers from a fatal flaw, because it is based in the concept that „might
makes right.‟ The fundamental problem is that the Perceiver observer in
the criminal is totally mesmerized. That is why he has no conscience. Boot
camp replaces one hypnotic master with another, but leaves Perceiver
thought hypnotized.
I suggest that the solution involves the natural world and common
sense. Send the criminals to a wilderness camp where they have to face
natural foes. Or, put them on a sailing ship where they must learn to battle
wind and wave. Give them a positive goal—something they can build, or
some place that they can reach.A Give them a „backyard‟ where the true
enemy is their lack of Perceiver knowledge and confidence, and not the
presence of some Mercy person. That will teach common sense and natural
opportunity. These types of rehabilitation programs do exist and the
evidence suggests that they are successful.B
A Robert Hughes, in his book The Fatal Shore, analyzes the British prison
colony of Australia, and calls it “the most successful form of penal
rehabilitation that had ever been tried in English, American, or European
history.” Convicts could not only work their way back to freedom, but with
a „ticket of leave‟ could become butchers, farmers and mechanics (Globe
and Mail, August 11, 1997).
B What happens if there are too many criminals? Then, law-abiding
citizens must themselves emigrate to another society, for their own
personal safety. There, they can build a positive alternative to the brutality
which emerges when lawless men congregate. But what if a country turns
evil and attacks its neighbors? Then a war of self-defense may become
necessary. War is terrible, but at least it tests skills and knowledge, and the
rebuilding which occurs when it is over will teach common sense. One
thinks, for example, of the postwar economic recovery of Germany and
Japan. But what if an evil country takes over? The fall of communism
suggests that even this is not the end, and that rebuilding is still possible.