aversive treatment has negative impacts on ‘other people’ in the present and those in the future
“Sustainability is essentially about how we humans can meet our needs and pursue our aspirations without making things worse for other people living in the present, anywhere in the world, and for those who are yet to come in the future”, lecture slides. Government policy on dealing with delinquents is controversial, secretive and harmful to the entire community, in the present and for those in the future. As we go about our everyday business, there are those that break away from the social norm and pursue extracurricular activities that somehow impose on the interests of the greater community. These social delinquents may choose to indulge in drugs and alcohol, cause a disturbance in public, sexual and / or aggressive, or merely partake in petty theft. The solution for delinquency is aversive treatment which has negative results upon the individual in concern and the greater community as well. Most of these degenerates are processed through the psych services and left to fester in halfway houses. These rooming houses support the scum of the community that no one wants to see or deal with and the living conditions of these places are worse than third world countries. There are several stakeholders in this scenario as aversive treatment effects the entire community. From a philosophical perspective, this is not justice. There are better ways of dealing with the problem. The real problem is that there aren’t enough qualified workers to remedy the issue. Social inclusive programs are the solution to help eradicate the isolation in squalor.
Thorndike, Skinner and Pavlov did some groundbreaking work on psychological conditioning. It is the works of these great psychologists that is the basis of the interventions that psychiatrists use to control social delinquents. Whether it be to control a sexual deviant or to provide drug rehabilitation for a heroin addicted prostitute, the government policy is to use aversive treatment prescribed by the great psychologists of the west. Just as a rat is given an electric shock to manipulate its behavior, members of our community are being punished in order to stimulate acceptable behavior. These people are ushered into the psych system and labelled as schizophrenic, in order to process the criminal act of aversive treatment legally. This is government policy. There isn’t a single professor, lawyer, judge or jury that can intervene once aversive treatment has begun. This is the policy of our great liberal western democracy. A lifetime of punishment with electric shocks, induced cavities, broken bones, unreasonable hospitalizations and the rest.
Once the ‘patient’ has a few teeth knocked out, there is no turning back. It is a lifetime on welfare, not to mention the inter-generational cycle. It is a loss to the workforce. It is a loss to the economy. It is a loss on the GDP. It is an embarrassment on an international scale. Once security is gone, Maslow’s basic first level need, there is no chance of climbing the hierarchy and achieving self esteem, social acceptance or enlightenment. There is no chance of pursuing Aristotle’s virtues of being a good person through knowledge. There is no will to study. There is no will to work. There is no will to live. A total loss of hope. Basic hygiene goes out the door. The only escape is found in isolation with drugs and alcohol. Most of these degenerates have attempted suicide unsuccessfully and at times cry out for help in an aggressive tantrum. After an initial beating by a professional in a hospital setting, the ‘patients’ are kicked to the gutter. The rooming houses on offer for these losers of society are unsafe, untidy, uncared for and smaller than the facilities in prison, which is why a lot of people would rather commit a crime and live in prison. The only policy on the consequences of aversive treatment is more intensive aversive treatment, till the delinquents kill themselves, aggress to the point of requiring a prison hospital or they make the choice to live on the street. Once on the street, the problem is in the eye of society and imposes on the comforts of others. Nobody wants to be hassled by a beggar while shopping or dining, however we all have to witness these degradations in our society, which all stem from aversive treatment. It is not sustainable. We cannot keep hurting our brothers and sisters.
There are a lot of stakeholders in this scenario. The psych team, the general practitioner, the psychologist, the anesthetician, the dentist, the nurses, the police, the ambulance and security guards all know exactly what is going on and are all against the offender. They are not happy until they have all 32 teeth in their hand. That is when they are satisfied. The use of reasonable is force is not only policy, but pleasure. There is no escape for the delusions of persecution, except a helping hand in the soup kitchen, a free meal with dog shit mixed into it! The homeless shelter accommodates on the condition that the dog does not bark! Our society has turned into a malicious, malignant pack of beasts. It is unsightly. It is disgusting. It is not sustainable. Hurting other people in order to change behavior. The rooming house owners do not care about the problem these people are having. They are capitalists. They are not trying to help their fellow brother. They are trying to profit from injustice. These people were able to contribute to the economy at some point in time. They too would have been able to afford luxury homes, however due to aversive treatment, they are stuck to living it up in the rooming houses as no one else will rent them a decent home. The rooming houses are designed to fit as many people in discomfort as possible in order to maximise space and increase profit. They are not cleaned and are infested with rats and cockroaches, but who can complain … they have to be grateful they are not sleeping on the street in the rain.
This process of aversive treatment is wrong and has to come to a stop. It is not sustainable. Hurting our brothers is not the right policy. Hindu philosophy is based on karmic justice. Indians believe that hurting other people will be punished by the almighty Krishna, in this life or the next. Buddhist philosophy, which was built from Hindu philosophy also accepts karmic justice and preaches right thought and right action; hurting other people is neither right thought nor right action. Jains do not even step on ants, so they couldn’t possibly hurt another individual. Jesus preached, ‘love thy neighbour as you wish to be loved’. Even Islam literature is based on fraternity.
The only way out of the mess we are in is to stop future aversive treatments. We need to treat the problem like a real mental illness and provide care for our brothers and sisters. We need not grind away at the teeth, to demonstrate power. If there is junkee who is causing problems in society, he needs to be cared for, not beaten to death. If there is a thief who is causing problems in society, there is no need to stone him to death. We need to find socially inclusive programs to enable a healthy community to foster. We cannot allow for our family to rot in the rooming houses that are presently available. If Murdoch or Obama wouldn’t live there, it is not fair to ask anyone else to live there. We need to clean up the houses. That could mean building new affordable facilities with reasonable living spaces. It could mean renovating existing rooming houses by changing the flooring, giving it a new paint job and calling in the exterminator. Most importantly, we need to have outreach programs to get the suicidal patients out of their rooms and into the community. Whether it be employment pathways, training programs, sports, or just meeting up for a coffee with a social worker, we need social inclusive programs.
Aversive treatment is detrimental to society. It is not right to hurt our brothers and sisters. It is not sustainable. Aversive treatment leads those affected to the gutters of our community, rooming houses. It is injustice. From the works of a few psychologists, works with animals, the government of Australia have created policy that is not sustainable. The Australian government allows for the malicious, grievous bodily harm on our brothers and sisters. The problem might have started with an aggressive outburst and led to the knocking out of all the teeth as those in power see fit to use their power, sometimes for sadistic pleasure. This is how great our constitutional democratic liberal monarchy is. In one of the richest countries in the world, we have people sleeping out in the rain as they try to avoid electric shocks. We have people jumping off suicide towers to escape the misery. We sometimes have aggression as a result of aversive treatment. The biggest problem is the isolation of members of our community. The heartache results in drug and alcohol pain relief. This is not the way our lord wishes for us to live. Our lord, whether it be Allah, Jehovah, Krishna or Buddha, does not want us to hurt our fellow brothers and sisters. It is not sustainable. It is an intergenerational problem. Once one man or woman are ‘treated’ and left to rot in the rooming houses, their children are most likely going to grow up to be social delinquents and the problem snowballs, according to Bandura’s social learning theory. Aversive treatment has to come to a stop and those locked away in these prisons called rooming houses have to be brought out of their cells, via social inclusive programs
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Maslow
Thorndike
Pavlov
Skinner
Aristotle
Hinduism
Islam
Jainism
Buddhism
Judaism
Bandura
lecture slides
