Dear Editor,
The "reasons" for crime in any country, including Jamaica, are numerous, but they all stem from human nature.
Let us not forget that humans are animals, though our ability to engage in higher levels of appreciation of complex thought, including morals and ethics -- due to our endowment with a massive swath of neo-cortex -- quite rightly enables us to be called "higher" animals.
Nevertheless, neo-cortex seems to be no match for the urges generated in the more "primitive", some say older, parts of the human brain, such as the brain stem, which generate "drives" of a lower order. Every known human society thus can be shown historically, and at present, to have engaged in, and likely also suffered from acts such as murder, sometimes genocide, torture, slavery, rape, brutality, deceit, corruption, a desire to acquire the possessions of others by force, and so on.
Every human is familiar with these behaviours. These are "natural" human behaviours, which, however, can be made more prevalent and intense when societies are organised on stratified bases of inequity. In such cases there may well be quietude, for a time, giving the impression of eternal acceptance of these arrangements, but sooner or later there will arise opposition to these arrangements.
These societal arrangements are not the only sources of crime, but in Jamaica, a post-slavery society, the society is still unbelievably skewed against the majority. The dog-hearted killers are not now greedy slaveowners seeking to extract maximum work from human work machines to benefit themselves. They are now arising from the disadvantaged class preying on their own.
These killers must be dealt with by authorities as many seem to be inextricably bound to their violent way of life, but their children can be, and must be, rescued, by the redemptive acts of mass education, skills-training, participation in business activities and so on, before it really becomes too late.
Cathy Brown
cathy291181@yahoo.com
Criminal acts may just be standard human urges
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The "reasons" for crime in any country, including Jamaica, are numerous, but they all stem from human nature.
Let us not forget that humans are animals, though our ability to engage in higher levels of appreciation of complex thought, including morals and ethics -- due to our endowment with a massive swath of neo-cortex -- quite rightly enables us to be called "higher" animals.
Nevertheless, neo-cortex seems to be no match for the urges generated in the more "primitive", some say older, parts of the human brain, such as the brain stem, which generate "drives" of a lower order. Every known human society thus can be shown historically, and at present, to have engaged in, and likely also suffered from acts such as murder, sometimes genocide, torture, slavery, rape, brutality, deceit, corruption, a desire to acquire the possessions of others by force, and so on.
Every human is familiar with these behaviours. These are "natural" human behaviours, which, however, can be made more prevalent and intense when societies are organised on stratified bases of inequity. In such cases there may well be quietude, for a time, giving the impression of eternal acceptance of these arrangements, but sooner or later there will arise opposition to these arrangements.
These societal arrangements are not the only sources of crime, but in Jamaica, a post-slavery society, the society is still unbelievably skewed against the majority. The dog-hearted killers are not now greedy slaveowners seeking to extract maximum work from human work machines to benefit themselves. They are now arising from the disadvantaged class preying on their own.
These killers must be dealt with by authorities as many seem to be inextricably bound to their violent way of life, but their children can be, and must be, rescued, by the redemptive acts of mass education, skills-training, participation in business activities and so on, before it really becomes too late.
Cathy Brown
cathy291181@yahoo.com
Criminal acts may just be standard human urges
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