One of the greatest things we can do is to forgive ourselves and each other for failures in judgement and move on with life. The New York Times has written eloquently about how in the online era, since we cannot erase our pasts, we may have to learn how to forgive failures and lapses that might have just disappeared in the haze of time and distance in the past. Now they live on forever in Facebook or the Google index.
For all the smart thinking about how we need to get better at forgetting and forgiving, as a society it seems like we're getting worse at it. Zero tolerance policies and three strikes laws are driving schools, businesses, and law enforcement towards pushing punishment out of all proportion with the crime.
And what do we gain? Arbitrary enforcement and terrible destruction of lives when these policies are applied. Behind these extreme policies are some very flawed ideas about fairness and justice. One of the worst is the idea that by applying a zero tolerance policy you are being fair. Enron did not fail because a middle manager booked used a blank receipt to cash in an extra taxi ride - the company failed because of fundamental fraud at the very highest levels.
Another fallacy behind our trend towards "extreme" justice is the idea that failings in one aspect of a person's life necessarily point to similar behavior in others. Not so. People are not uniform or consistent. There's many a brilliant scientist who can master complex chemical formulas but can't remember what kind of oil to put in the car. So it goes in life. Exceeding the speed limit is not "gateway crime" to murder.
In schools, law, and business, it's time to restore a sense of proportion to our approach to justice. Mark Hurd should get his job back. Stpehen Slater should be back in the air. And we should all just learn to go easier on each other.
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| Less Jail Time, More "Teachable Moments" - Prison (Photo from Flickr, CC) |
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