Gladatorial Combat

[Steezie]

I was discussing the idea for having a system of voluntary gladiatorial combat between prisoners run for profit to help ease the burden of the prison system.

Now one individual didnt like this idea and was extremely upset about the very idea of gladiatorial combat but wouldnt go into details.

So why is this, why is there an objection to having just a fight between humans?

Im not talking about boxing, Im talking about an actual gladiatorial fight with hand weapons between people

 

[TeddyKGB]

What is a prisoner's motivation to fight?

 

[FadingWhispers3]

There are a few objections I can think of.

One is that when people fight in a spectacle, they may gain admiration. So ciminals would not be discouraged, some might even be encouraged towards crime that they may gain fame. This would run contrary of the idea of punishment or correction.

Another is the idea that we're essentially training prisoners to be more lethal. There is some worry about the effect this might have should prisoners try to revolt as well as whether such a thing would fixate prisoners such that to stay in such fights is the only thing they know.

Some have qualms about the idea of the combat itself. They believe we should not encourage violence nor revel in it.

Others might believe that the system would be unfair. It is supposedly voluntary and yet prisoners are by definition deprived of power and voice. The potential for abuse, that unwilling and innocent people may be forced into them, is a distasteful possibility for some.

Observe how money corrupts politics. How soon before such a system, proposed to reduce the burden of prisons, would turn to something more sinister because of the potential profit involved?

 

[Ryal Kane]

Using prisoners for this would be a tremendously bad idea, both ethically and practically.

However, I suspect reality TV will be picking up the idea in about five years or so.

 

[Bombila]

Fading Whispers just about covers why it would be a bad idea, and ethically repulsive. I'm sure you'd have realized the downside yourself, once you got beyond the reality that though you yourself may enjoy armed combat as competition, you are a free man.

 

[quatona]

I was discussing the idea for having a system of voluntary gladiatorial combat between prisoners run for profit to help ease the burden of the prison system.

I´m not sure I understand why we would have prisoners do that which we regard a criminal act.
Not only does this proposal display a view of imprisoned persons I don´t share, it also is irreconcilable with and counterproductive to every concept and goal of punishment that I find reasonable.

Actually, I wouldn´t know why not have unemployed persons fight each other publicly to help ease the financial burden of unemployment, persons suffering from diseases fight each other publicly for to help ease the burden of public heath care etc., once we have started going down that road.

Now one individual didnt like this idea and was extremely upset about the very idea of gladiatorial combat but wouldnt go into details.

Well, the idea of solving conflicts by means of physical violence has become somewhat "out of fashion", if you will. Having people who don´t even have a conflict fight each other just for the heck of it, for our entertainment and our financial comfort does not match basic paradigms of our societies.
On a more personal note, I wouldn´t know how to credibly communicate the virtue of non-violence (e.g. to children) if violence for entertainment were an accepted and even institutionalized part of our society.

So why is this, why is there an objection to having just a fight between humans?

Because violence is an archaic means of the primitive and uneducated. We need more education, we don´t need more violence.
Because our societies put great effort in keeping people from fighting each other physically. Many prisoners are imprisoned exactly because they haven´t understood this basic ethical/societal principle and have violated it. The common idea behind imprisoning people is to teach them comply with the paradigms of our society. Institutionalizing sociopathy conflicts with not only with this goal, but with those very paradigms.

 

[stan1980]

I suggested something similar a while back... but with teenage thugs and gangs instead of prisoners. I was only kidding though. I think the reasons why this is a bad idea are already well covered in this thread.