I'm not necessarily pro death penalty, mostly because I don't trust the state to not screw up in a system that rewards the prosecution for locking people up, but is the death penalty actually retributive? Or is it to remove someone from society who cannot be rehabilitated or trusted to be loose in society?
I'm with you on the first part, but in the second part, I think you're stating it as if retribution versus punishment are somehow mutually exclusive.
Across a sample of society, and in any given individual, it's probably a mixture of both.
I have an intellectual kind of disappointment with the whole damned thing because he was a pretty bright individual who was studying neuroscience, and could have made significant contributions in that field. Now (given that he survives the prison environment) he still might,
a la the birdman of Alcatraz meme. (Yeah, I know, that was overdramatized and fictionalized in the movie.)
As a side comment, it sometimes seems that somehow there is a point in the population's intellect versus social adaptation "Quotient," if you will, where a certain amount of instability may occur. That is, where intellect actually interferes with social adaptation.
Yet, with still higher intellect, the person realizes his maladaptive behavior and "acts normal."
The smartest person I ever knew once remarked, "Bright people join Mensa. Very bright people join Mensa Squared. But very, very bright people join the Rotarians and the Lions club and their church choir."
In other words, Leonard Hofstadter was wayyyyy smarter than Sheldon Cooper.
Terry
