I read in the news recently, that a mother of four had raped her 11-year old daughter as part of her “sexual education”. The mother was sentenced to four years and everyone lived happily ever after. I cannot even begin to discuss the disgust I felt when I first read this case. Yet, as I keep on thinking about it, thinking about all the crimes committed every day, two extreme scenarios wander around my brain.
My first reaction, as is of course every “normal” human being’s first reaction, is to feel disgust and anger towards this animal, who dares call herself a “mother”. The physical, psychological and emotional scars her daughter has to endure for the rest of her life are hard to imagine. In order to satisfy her own carnal, sick, twisted desires, the “mother” raped her own child. Which makes me wonder though if she should indeed be in prison or in a mental institute. Then again, isn’t every criminal, every murdered, rapist, kidnapper, a bit sick and twisted in the head?
So then I’m starting to think, if this woman lived in ancient Greece or Rome, things would be a lot different. Brothers at some point had to take the virginity of their sisters, young boys had to sleep with their mentors before entering adulthood and becoming true men and soldiers, slaves were forced into performing all sorts of sexual activities. Those societies accepted all of these things as “normal” and it was considered a disgrace if one refused to take part in such acts.
However, the human species has evolved throughout the centuries and the passing of time. We are now an older species, more knowledgeable, wiser and more just- supposedly. I can see arguments on both sides for these. On one hand, the advances in technology, science and medicine, the rise of democracy and of the legal system, the flourish of arts indicate that we have matured, that we are perhaps shifting away from our carnal desires and our urges to climb up trees and hump anything in sight. On the other hand though, we have endless wars, nuclear weapons, corruption, greed and a rise in violent and horrific crimes. Have we actually matured or are we just kidding ourselves, adapting to whatever is “normal” and “socially acceptable” in our current times and society, dismissing everything else and labelling it as sick and/or criminal.
Yet I return to my initial thoughts and feel that this woman has committed a terrible crime. Whatever her reasoning might have been, whatever desires or little voices in her head urged her to do so, she failed to do what the number one rule has been in nature since the dawn of time: Protect her child. She should be stripped off her dignity and her rights as a mother. And she deserves a severe punishment. Which of course brings up the next debate: Prison or mental institute? Or secret door number three: Death?
Superman’s greatest weakness was not kryptonite and was not his lust for Lois Lane. It was the fact that he had “moral standards” and kept himself from turning against the law. He could never bring himself to kill Lex Luthor and end thousands of people’s misery and agony. He had to go by the book. He had to go by the law. Lex Luthor deserved prison. So whilst Superman is trying to gather evidence to lock him up, Lex is torturing people and planning to rule and/or destroy the world. And if Superman succeeds and locks him up, the citizens of Metropolis will sigh in relief – and work hard, pay taxes so that Lex Luthor has a nice cell, with tv, gym and internet, so that one day he can walk out of prison as a free man and begin his torturing again. Wouldn’t things be much simpler and better off for everyone, if Clark could just grow a pair and fry up Lex with his fiery eyes?
Without having all the facts about the rapist “mother” and without concluding whether she should belong in prison or in a mental institute, I cannot help but wonder about all the other rapists and murderers, that the society has to feed, clothe, accommodate. If it was possible at all, I would say “drop them all in a deserted island and let them deal with each other”. But since this can’t be the case, then why not end their lives – same way they have ended the lives of others either physically or emotionally? Again I can hear the arguments in my head: we have no right to act as gods, we are as bad as them if we do that, what about the innocent ones. Fine, you don’t want to kill them and you want to keep them around, wasting on them every hard-working taxpayer’s money? Then make some use out of them. Put them into some kind of manual labour. Test novel drugs on them, before releasing them to the public.
You think I’m being harsh in wanting them to die or suffer? Think of the 11-year old who has just lost her entire life, thanks to the person she was meant to trust the most.
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