Somewhat recently in class we watched a video about the Prison Industrial Complex, and how the current prison system is not working right, or at least not ideally. The actual arguments made in the video are not as important as what my first reaction was to the video, and the reaction to my reaction.
Because while I may have agreed with some of the points the video brought up, the first question I asked was, "what is their alternative?" Seems logical enough to me, right? But as soon as the question was asked, another classmate immediately followed up with the question, "Why was his first question for an alternative? Do we need an alternative?"
This point made me consider what I had said more carefully. Why do we care about alternatives, and should we?
I look first to the world we live in today, a world fueled by deeming whether or not something is practical. we live in a practical society. Here is where alternatives come into play. While we can step back and criticize and existing fact or concept, as a society, we do not see that as worth it. What is the point to complaining about something if there is no other more practical solution.
So here is where I stand. I think that, as a society, it is important, if not necessary, to be looking for alternatives. We cannot simply sit back and talk poorly about things if we do not have a better solution. It is both not fair, and, I have to say it, not practical.
What do you think? Should we be worried about alternatives?
I completely agree Tim. A good example of what you're saying is Rick Santorum's call to ban what he calls obscene pornography. On the surface, it might even sound like a good idea - just get rid of all that grotesque and morbid material, right? But the real question is, what do you do with people who disobey the law? Are we, as a society, really ready to send people to jail who were nonviolent and whose only "crime" was uploading perverse videos online? As much as I would like to root out the pornography in our society and turn back the clock on its pervasiveness, the alternative is not to punish nonviolent people. So in every decision that we take, it's absolutely vital that we consider the alternatives, and if they are worse than the actual problem, they shouldn't be implemented.
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