Word: commitment
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...much of the give and take between characters and the faulty human personalities which normally pull a person into a good film. Orwell, writing about Gandhi after he was murdered, noted. "The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one's love upon other human...
...idea of deterrence can be quickly reduced to very personal rudiments: If I know I will be punished so severely, I will not commit the crime. The logic is undeniable. Yet in the thickets of real life and real crime, deterrence, while central to practically all punishment, is often very uncertain, and its effect on prospective murderers is especially unclear. Unfortunately, public discussion usually consists of flat-out pronouncements. Capital punishment, says Conservative Commentator William F. Buckley, "is a strong, plausible deterrent." No, declares New York Governor Cuomo, "there has never been any evidence that the death penalty deters." Neither...
...ordinary standards demented enough to make a mess of any theory of deterrence. Says New York University Law Professor Anthony Amsterdam: "People who ask themselves those questions-'Am I scared of the death penalty? Would I not be deterred?'-and think rationally, do not commit murder for many, many reasons other than the death penalty...
Former Prosecutor Bernard Carey, until 1980 state's attorney for Cook County, favors capital punishment, sparingly used. Yet he says, "I don't think it's much of a deterrent because the kinds of people who commit these crimes aren't going to be deterred by the electric chair." Some might be encouraged. "For every person for whom the death penalty is a deterrent," says Stanford Psychiatry Professor Donald Lunde, "there's at least one for whom it is an incentive." Such murderers, says Amsterdam, "are attracted by the Jimmy Cagney image of 'live...
...Constituency: The two economists commit a left-wing version of the Japan-worship error in citing Swedish socialism as a model of "humane" industrial policy. American workers would probably resist Japan-style regimentation; but they have some pretty strong anti-collectivist traditions as well. Bluestone and Harrison simply gloss over this obstacle to an American movement for worker's control. And in a near-depression, workers are bound to look askance at any thing that sounds more risky than a job offer...