Crime and Punishment–Sometimes

When I was a kid, my father and step-mother had one speed for their response to anything I did “wrong.” I could leave a sock on the bathroom floor, instead of putting it the often overflowing hamper, and get clobbered. I could steal and spend $50 of the money I collected on my paper route (of which no more than $2 would be my earnings) and I’d get clobbered. A little before I turned 14, I ran away to watch and hang out with jazz groups on 13th in Kansas City. My plan was to find work and get “the hell out of Dodge,” but I got picked up and put on the train back to Dodge by the Kansas City police, after they’d phoned my father to tell him where I’d been. And I got clobbered, but no worse than when I skipped out on church, on Saturday night, by sneaking out of the house and hiding in the old St. Mary’s college ruins basements until Sunday afternoon. Hell, I could use too much Crisco while deep frying chicken for the Sunday family lunch and I’d get clobbered.

There are a couple of ways to take that kind of feedback. One is “learned helplessness syndrome,” where the response would be to give up, assuming nothing I can do will change my environment. The other is to assume that there is no dynamic range to the punishment I’ll received, so I might as well try to get away with a lot rather than screw up a little. Since the variation in punishment is negligible, why not burn down the house instead of just overcooking lunch? .

Likewise, the situation with the Loud Boy invasion of Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. this week and Trump’s lifetime behavior. Obviously, since the cops and military are going to meet extreme violence, a breech of national security, and destruction of public property with considerably less force and repercussions than waving signs and singing in a BLM protest received, why not try to bomb a few federal buildings, kill some cops, or kidnap a state governor or two and see if there is a noticeable reaction to that? Trump learned that betraying his friends and family was rewarded by his father’s favor and, later, with little-to-no negative reaction from government and business when he cheated on taxes, didn’t pay vendors, screwed over customers, and lied so constantly that a sane person would assume every word out of his mouth was a lie.

Likewise, if the Loud Boys and the white supremist and the renegade cops and other government employees (include Cruz and Hawley) who participated in and encouraged the domestic terrorism we all witnessed on January 6 are allowed to carry on as if they did not commit punishable crimes and sedition, you can be sure they will be back again and bigger.