It seemed so illogical to punish some poor criminal for doing something that civilization taught him how to do so he could have something that civilization taught him how to want. It seemed to him as wrong as if they had hung the gun that shot the man.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the hypocrisy of punishing individuals for actions that society itself encourages and shapes.
Chester Himes's quote highlights the paradox of a society that instills desires and behaviors in individuals, only to later punish them for acting on those very instincts. It suggests that the roots of crime are deeply entwined with societal influences, raising questions about justice and accountability when individuals are simply responding to their environment.
In practice
Discussing the complexities of crime during a sociology class.
If one lives in a country where racism is held valid and practiced in all ways of life eventually, no matter whether one is a racist or a victim, one comes to feel the absurdity of life....Racism generated from whites is first of all absurd. Racism creates absurdity among blacks as a defense mechanism.
I believe in mysticism, with an interior goal, _x000D_ and you are your own temple _x000D_ and your own priest.
She [Alice] went on "And how do you know that you're mad?" "To begin with," said the Cat, "a dog's not mad. You grant that?" "I suppose so," said Alice. "Well, then," the Cat went on, "you see, a dog growls when it's angry, and wags it's tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad."
It is only in alert silence that truth can be.
My earliest memory is being in a snow hole, aged two-and-a-half, with my dad somewhere up a mountain in a blizzard. I don't know what my dad saw in me - I was a geeky kid - but he had that philosophy: prepare the kid for the road, not the road for the kid.
I think we may class the lawyer in the natural history of monsters.
There are nuclear-weapons-free zones in several parts of the world already, except that they're not implemented fully, because the U.S. won't allow it.
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