Is it really the idea that non-capitalism of some sort would just have less crime because people wouldn't be tainted by this stuff? And so, I'm just trying to find any example of a non-capitalist society that wouldn't be taken as an exception. There are examples of that, but at much smaller scales of society. So, you want large scale and, you know, like almost modern, industrial society,. But that's kind of one of those things that it is hard to disentangle.
Here’s an episode with something for both of us – a healthy serving of Kantian rationalism for David with a dollop of Marxist criminology for Tamler. We discuss and then argue about Jeffrie Murphy’s 1971 paper “Marxism and Retribution.” For Murphy, utilitarianism is non-starter as a theory of punishment because it can’t justify the right of the state to inflict suffering on criminals. Retributivism respects the autonomy of individuals so it can justify punishment in principle – but not in practice, at least not in a capitalist system. So it ends up offering a transcendental sanction of the status quo. We debate the merits of Murphy’s attack on Rawls and social contract theory under capitalism, along with the Marxist analysis of the roots of criminal behavior.
Plus – the headline says it all: Blame The Brain, Not Bolsonaro, For Brazil’s Riots.
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