Breivik judged to be sane

[Hottentot]

Originally Posted by u crank

I would agree, but I still have some mixed feelings on the subject of capital punishment. Here in Canada the death penalty was eliminated in 1976, but there have been some cases where I would not have disagreed with it

I can understand that. It's not like I didn't in certain local cases have similar feelings as well. But our feelings and opinions are just that: feelings and opinions. People have been lynched in the past based on feelings and opinions, and I'm glad we are not doing that anymore. If they have to be killed because of their crimes, then at least I want the society to have balls to say: "Yes, we have death penalty and we are using it." That hopefully creates enough rational standards to save the death penalty for only the people who have no other options.

Breivik's case along with some others reminds me of a book I read last spring. If I'm not totally mistaken, it was Andrei Sinyavsky's Soviet Civilization: A Cultural History (a good book, by the way). In it the author described the Soviet Gulag system among other things by saying that the people who were sentenced there were afraid for their lives. Not because they were sentenced to forced labor, but because they were sentenced to live with "criminals". They sincerely believed that they themselves were sentenced there by mistake that would soon be corrected, but all the other inmates were dangerous criminals who deserved their punishment.

In short, they basically accepted the existence of such punishment, because it was reserved for "criminals". And I believe this is what is happening always when we (anywhere) are discussing a serious crime and its punishment. We are ready to accept even unusual forms of punishment that are against the current laws, because we also believe we are immune to such punishment ourselves. We are not criminals after all, right? But as the Soviet example shows, "criminal" is a label that can easily be stamped on anyone in the right conditions.

That's why I would keep an extra careful watch for how our society is treating the criminals and on what the sentences are based on. In this sense Norway couldn't have acted better. The public pressure must have been high, but the common sense won in the end.

As other posters have said, the best punishment for Breivik is to have him become a non entity. Denying him his mad dreams and wishes is the best a civilized society can do.

And here we are in 100 % agreement.