by Reason Wilken
There are many ingredients of a good drama. Among them are tragedy, irony and suspense. Thus, it comes as no surprise that the current legal system provides plenty of fodder for shows like The Practice and Law & Order. In the course of one episode an individual guilty of murder can walk free or an innocent person can be found guilty ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. The testimony of a key witness may be thrown out on a technicality, and a defense attorney may pledge the innocence of their (guilty) client. Things are not always as they seem inside a courtroom, which provides plenty of plot twists for producers and writers. But if one is to look beyond the drama, is our current system of crime and punishment really “just”? It seems like there must be a better system of justice available, one in which a convicted killer could not be absolved of responsibility by pleading insanity. The newly proposed synergic organization called the Life Trust may be one such alternative.
The crux of the Life Trust proposal rests on what is referred to as the “Principle of Non-Allness”. This principle states that all the factors, details and circumstances in a situation can never be known. There is always uncertainty with regards to what will happen next, and all humans are living their lives and choosing courses of action do so without all of the information. In this context, mistakes are viewed in a new light. No longer are mistakes “bad” and worthy of blame and punishment. Instead, mistakes are the result of ignorance. They are an inevitable part of life because no one has all the information, but they do provide an opportunity to learn. Thus, mistakes should be dealt with using education rather than condescension, blame and punishment.
The proposed Life Trust is based upon a biological model: cancer. Cancer cells are continually being created during the process of cellular division and are (usually) destroyed by the immune system. The immune system is able to recognize cancer cells as abnormal and contain their spread by destroying them. In the Life Trust, individuals who take part in adversary events are like cancer cells, and they threaten the well-being of society just as cancer cells threaten the health of the body. Law enforcement officials (referred to as Life Trust Guardians) are akin to the immune system, seeking out adversary individuals and containing them. The process does not stop with containment (as it often does in the current system), but moves on to education and rehabilitation in order to help prevent future adversary events.