Triadic Philosophy saves a lot of failed effort through its understanding that most problems result from binary thinking. In the case of Prison reform, we have little problem in understanding that the abolishment of prisons makes all kinds of sense. But that will never happen. American prisons have grown five times, at least, since 1970 and we are the global leader, by practically that amount, in the number we keep confined. The triadic approach instantly understands that we will not accomplish more than a moving of furniture without the following essential elements.
We must first see that the individual is the unit of greatest importance in solving any problem. This is because the individual is where the mind is located, one to a person. The second necessity is to see that our thinking to be triadic must incorporate ethics and aesthetics. This is why, as a philosophy, we are head and shoulders above all others. We do this while others fail to do this. Finally, triadic action and expression, rising from the examination of signs, in terms of ethics and aesthetics, is always a step, a fallible step, on a way that is going to be long and arduous.
Slavery and imprisonment
Among the most perceptive American thinkers is Angela Davis. She is also among America's most cogent analysts of the travesty that is our prison system.
Triadic understanding, as indicated, faces off with punishment itself because it is explicitly violent. Any barrier to freedom is, in Triadic Philosophy, the equivalent of murder. Prisons limit choice in such a radical manner that very few can function there with little to no chance of attaining transcendence or even making progress.
Angela Davis, in the following video, brings us up to speed on the actualities of our prison system and the problems it poses.
The Prison: A Sign of Democracy? https://t.co/IbFORMlwkB via @YouTube
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) January 27, 2018
Punitive
The sign for this consideration is the punitive impulse itself. It is an aspect of the violent impulse which we made the subject of our most recent consideration of ways to propound nonviolence to the world.
The impulse to punish is lodged in the individual. It is the binary response that sees only one alternative to an infraction — punishment. Triadic Philosophy submits all decisions to ethics and aesthetics. These categories automatically modify punitive impulses by posing other, better options. When we submit punitive notions to tolerance, we think that we find much crime intolerable, but also that there are ways around perpetuating karma by playing eye-for-an-eye forever.
When we move to what helps — helpfulness — we reflect that prison is hardly a hand up. It is chains around a basic human right, the right to choose.That right is freedom itself. Helpfulness is also education and enablement. Some say prisons should be turned into schools. That would improve on the present, but even our educational system, as a whole, needs a major makeover.
This will be continued in a final article.
