The prison industrial complex is perhaps, at least domestically, the most striking example of us putting profit before people. It all stems from one basic misunderstanding: that the public good can be shepherded by private interests.
Interpretation
This quote critiques the prioritization of profits over the well-being of individuals within the prison system.
Eugene Jarecki's quote highlights the problematic relationship between privatization and the public good, particularly in the context of the prison industrial complex. He suggests that the focus on profit leads to a fundamental misunderstanding of how societal welfare can be effectively managed, implying that relying on private interests to oversee such critical public institutions erodes the fundamental values of humanity and justice.
In practice
In a discussion about the ethics of the prison system at a community meeting.
The human heart is the first home of democracy. It is where we embrace our questions: Can we be equitable? Can we be generous? Can we listen with our whole beings, not just our minds, and offer our attention rather than our opinion? And do we have enough resolve in our hearts to act courageously, relentlessly, without giving up, trusting our fellow citizens to join us in our determined pursuit-a living democracy?
I may err but I am not a heretic, for the first has to do with the mind and the second with the will!
Societies can be sunk by the weight of buried ugliness.
I am not bound to please thee with my answer.
I was a westerner in Iran, an Iranian in the West. I had no identity. I didn't even know anymore why I was living.
Every bird which flies has the thread of the infinite in its claw. Germination includes the hatching of a meteor and the tap of a swallow's bill breaking the egg, and it leads forward the birth of an earth-worm and the advent of Socrates.
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