[QUOTE="Skeet" McD]As I've had occasion to mention elsewhere, my first "real" job--for 3 summers during college and then about 2 years after--was at Sing-Sing prison, the "cottage industry" of my home town. For the bulk of that time, I was inside the walls, seeing the entire population (except men in solitary) go by regularly. I had a crew of 10 inmates, all of them murderers, under me.
Take home message: they were all very nice people...had no trouble with any of them save 2 REAL psychopaths (father and son)...but they all would as soon kill you as look at you if you crossed a line--by their rulebook.
It is, in my opinion, a common delusion (brought about by a generally well-ordered world) that "everybody is just like me, and if they're not...we can talk about it and sort it out; they must just not understand." In other words: THEY must be wrong.
Well, on the global stage or in Sing-Sing--or standing at the door of your bedroom with malice aforethought--the fact is: there are plenty of people out there who are playing by very different rules and have chosen--for whatever reasons--to do so. To ignore this fact is both intensely egocentric and can also be quite dangerous, for countries; cultures; and individuals.
A similar eye-opener for me was (during a decade working in a clinical research laboratory dedicated to a genetic disease that cuts across ALL boundaries of class, race, economic level, nationality and (yes) whether you were inside or outside of a prison!) just how homogenous and insulated most of our lives are, even if we are not actively trying to keep it that way--and may well think we go out of our way to know the world more fully. Observing a pretty much random sample of humanity is both thought-provoking and, frankly, somewhat scary.
These are personal observations; every person has to decide what to do about the facts they report. But, believe me--they are facts.
"Skeet"[/QUOTE]
While I don't dispute your ideas, I don't see them as facts. they are observations and conclusions. That said, you seem like an intelligent guy who has experienced many things, so your observations and conclusions should hold some weight with people.
One issue I might take is that, while you seem to imply that people are naive about what others are capable, I would suggest that the media has put people in a constant state of fear, when the vast majority of people are quite normal and safe. i think people are too afraid of people, while you seem to feel they are not afraid enough. i guess we can both have our opinions.
Take home message: they were all very nice people...had no trouble with any of them save 2 REAL psychopaths (father and son)...but they all would as soon kill you as look at you if you crossed a line--by their rulebook.
It is, in my opinion, a common delusion (brought about by a generally well-ordered world) that "everybody is just like me, and if they're not...we can talk about it and sort it out; they must just not understand." In other words: THEY must be wrong.
Well, on the global stage or in Sing-Sing--or standing at the door of your bedroom with malice aforethought--the fact is: there are plenty of people out there who are playing by very different rules and have chosen--for whatever reasons--to do so. To ignore this fact is both intensely egocentric and can also be quite dangerous, for countries; cultures; and individuals.
A similar eye-opener for me was (during a decade working in a clinical research laboratory dedicated to a genetic disease that cuts across ALL boundaries of class, race, economic level, nationality and (yes) whether you were inside or outside of a prison!) just how homogenous and insulated most of our lives are, even if we are not actively trying to keep it that way--and may well think we go out of our way to know the world more fully. Observing a pretty much random sample of humanity is both thought-provoking and, frankly, somewhat scary.
These are personal observations; every person has to decide what to do about the facts they report. But, believe me--they are facts.
"Skeet"[/QUOTE]
While I don't dispute your ideas, I don't see them as facts. they are observations and conclusions. That said, you seem like an intelligent guy who has experienced many things, so your observations and conclusions should hold some weight with people.
One issue I might take is that, while you seem to imply that people are naive about what others are capable, I would suggest that the media has put people in a constant state of fear, when the vast majority of people are quite normal and safe. i think people are too afraid of people, while you seem to feel they are not afraid enough. i guess we can both have our opinions.
People far more intelligent than I, and possibly you, have been discussing THAT one for millenia...and I don't think we're liable to advance the matter much by getting into it here! 
