The Pillory – Should It Be Resurrected?
Friends, a few centuries ago minor scoundrels and wrongdoers were put in a pillory in a public place and, while there, they were humiliated by jeering crowds of local citizens while being liberally pelted with rotten fruit and eggs (see image).
Another version of this punishment was the stocks whereby their legs were held while extended periods of jeering and pelting took place. Another popular punishment was tarring and feathering which is both self-explanatory and, I would imagine, extremely unpleasant.
We look at such punishments now as being rather primitive and uncivilized but surely what happened then was far better than our modern day practice of sending people to jail for minor offences where they mix with other criminals and are sodomized and brutalized by them and frequently come out far worse than they went in.
Why don’t we bring back the pillory? There are all manner of folk who would surely mend their ways after being pilloried.
The following is a partial list: tricky lawyers, lying politicians, unscrupulous businessmen and women, child molesters, wife-beaters, drug dealers, folk who engage in incest, dishonest policemen, doctors with wandering hands, etc. You may like to add some more.
The problem is that, even if we just take the first three groups, we would have to have whole streets filled with pillories to cater for all those who qualified. In fact, there could be more people in the pillories than in the crowds and there mightn’t be enough rotten fruit and eggs to generate a decent pelting!
Oh, Dear! Why is life so complicated?
I would like to add Man Utd fans, miserable shop assistants, bands that remake clasic songs, SUV drivers, bad mannered people, Tom Hanks, anyone who listens to country and western music, Rupert Murdoch and his associated media outlets and the man from number 7 who wears shorts all year round. Oh, and scienctologists for being so damned brain dead.
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Looks as though we’ll need a forest of pillories, Lucy!
Cheers.
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I don’t know, looks like torture to me…
I think these type of punishments is what are referred to when people note “cruel and unusual punishment”…
Though, there is no doubt that prisons in the U.S. are a disaster. The teach people how to be criminals and they are a key recruiting and endoctrination resource for gangs and organized crime.
Q
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Humiliation can be used effectively as a deterrent with some individuals, Q. Locking them up in drug-infested jails with hardcore criminals isn’t!
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And to think that it was the Quakers who brought the prison system to the USA. Thank you for speaking out about the horrors such punishment by the government inflicts on hapless citizens.
Some judge with a grudge against me issued a bench warrant for my arrest, and believe me the lock-up system is filthy and unbelievably degrading.
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The obvious reason for not reinstating the pillory is that the people who most belong in it are exactly the people who will be deciding who gets pilloried.
i.e. expect it to be filled with homosexuals, protesters, social workers, liberals of all persuasions, and the one-in-a-million politician who betrays their party for the truth.
And face it – as a gay liberal, you’re just THRILLED with the idea of being tied up in public while the nutcase fringe throws things at you – rocks, bricks, knives, hornets’ nests, buckets of feces…
yeah, brilliant idea.
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Swan, we have the same problem with jails in Australia too. They degrade and diminish and should be closed down and a more humane, positive, drug and rape-free system set up in their place.
Chainsaw, I’m not sure that the extreme scenario you paint would come to pass. After all, not all people in the world are extreme right-wingers!
Cheers.
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It may be off topic, but after looking at the major world dangers on the right of the screen, number 9(overpopulation) is not one. In fact you could fit the entire Earth’s population in the state of Texas all though it would be standing room only it would be some sight wouldn’t it? Hundreds of billions of people just standing side by side, it would be amazing. I think it should be replaced with something like deforestation of the rainforests or terrorism those seem to be a much bigger threat.
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Jonny, it’s not just a question of space, it’s a question of sustainability, of having enough food and clean water, etc.
The idea of standing in Texas shoulder to shoulder with 6.5 billion people fills me with horror!
Cheers.
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I see your point… its not like we are going to run out of food and water in 10 years it would take a couple thousand years to do that, its just that the food isn’t to the people in need, now wasting it is a big problem, but a crazy terroist with a nuke would fill you up with even more horror wouldn’t it?
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Crazy terrorists with nukes, warmongering politicians like Bush and Netanyahu with nukes, they all fill me with horror!
Cheers.
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Having no such thing as nuclear weapons would make me sleep better at night. I have another question for you, David, why is religion on the list or world dangers?
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Institutionalized religion is a divisive force, Jonny, one that is based upon nothing more than primitive superstition and old wives’ tales. There is no evidence for the existence of any of the many gods that theologians advocate.
To deal with the problems in our world we need to operate from a base of reality, not silly hocus-pocus.
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What do you mean from a “base of reality”?, do you mean like studying evolution and advancing science?
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Jonny, science is based upon facts, provable facts whereas religion is based purely upon beliefs, divisive, nonsensical beliefs which are supported by no facts. Religions compete with each other, fight each other, trying to get converts.
There’s already too much fighting in the world.
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