Chapter 21: Law, Order, Crime, and Living Together in Ways That Make Sense

What is the relationship between the socio-economic paradigm we live in and the nature and prevalence of crime? This is a complex question, almost as complex as human nature itself, but there are some very useful and instructive generalities that can be drawn from readily available data.

First, we need a definition of "crime." In a compassionate symbiotic society, a good generic working definition might be "any deliberate behavior that knowingly causes harm."

In Capitalist societies, the definitions are much more numerous and complex.

It is a crime to sleep on land owned by someone else. It is a crime to drive a car without paying a fee. In some cities in the United States it is a crime to feed the homeless or to grow and raise food for one's own use. To grow lettuce is legal; to grow marijuana is a crime in many countries.

Historically, the definitions of crime have often been capriciously determined by economic, cultural, religious and other utterly arbitrary means. In Singapore it is a crime to spit on the street. In Saudi Arabia and Iran it is a crime for a woman to go out alone without being completely covered, and possession of any alcoholic beverage is a crime. In World War II Japan it was a crime to practice any religion but Shinto. In pre-Civil War United States it was a crime in slave states to hide or protect an escaped slave, to teach slaves to read or write, or to help slaves escape. In some U.S. states before the Civil Rights movement and in some countries around the world even now, it was a crime to marry someone of a different race or religion. The list is virtually endless.

In the Feudal societies of medieval Europe, it was a crime for a serf or peasant to deny a nobleman anything they demanded; yet it was not a crime for a nobleman to kill, rape, or otherwise brutalize anybody who wasn’t a churchman or of noble birth.

What we are concerned with here is determining what criteria to use in defining what is criminal behavior in a compassionate, empowering synergistic egalitarian society.

Under Capitalism crimes fall into a few broad categories:

1) Crimes of direct harm to living beings: assault, murder, kidnapping, rape, false imprisonment, slander, intimidation, harassment, etc, which will certainly still be crimes in the post-Transition paradigms.

2) Crimes in which people are hurt indirectly, or their property is damaged or taken away: theft, fraud, robbery, vandalism, discrimination (in hiring, renting to, doing business with targeted individuals or groups), nonpayment for goods or services, failure to provide paid-for goods and services, identity theft, false advertising, breach of contract and more.

3) Financial crimes: embezzlement, ponzi schemes, counterfeiting, insider trading, manufacture and distribution of designer knock-offs, smuggling, money laundering, illegal gambling, securities and insurance fraud, tax evasion, etc.

4) Arbitrarily defined administrative crimes: Living in a vehicle, doing business without a license, camping outside of designated campgrounds, failure to pay arbitrarily legislated fees, parking in certain places, possessing or growing certain plants, fishing without a license, turning 18 while in a sexual relationship with a 17 year old who won't turn 18 for a day or more afterwards, failure to renew a license or certificate, expressing strong emotion (especially anger) in a government or corporate office, sharing work-related technical information with a friend or family member who works for a competing company, marrying a person of the wrong sex or more than one person (even with consent of all involved), etc.

While it is likely that some kinds of crimes in category 1 will never be completely eliminated in any human society, it is certain that categories 2 - 4 can and will be eliminated and the frequency of many crimes from category 1 will dramatically diminish or cease as well, in a mutualistic synergistic paradigm.

In a society where every individual, family or other social unit has their needs fulfilled by default: a place to live, food, medical care, safety, education, recreation, respect etc; when money is not needed or demanded just to be allowed to live, then crimes like robbery, theft, murder for money, fraud, looting and similar crimes will be virtually unheard of, in sharp contrast with what is common in Capitalist paradigms. If anybody can acquire a TV, smart phone or computer by going down to the local supply center and picking one up, there will be no need to steal one. When money is not needed to exist and function day-to-day or to even enjoy entertainments or diversions, then there will be little or no reinforcement, incentivization or motivation for crimes aimed at acquisition of goods or money.

Crimes of passion may happen in any paradigm. Two people get mad enough to fight and someone is seriously injured or killed in the process. A person walks in on their spouse or significant other being unfaithful and violence ensues. This kind of scenario may never completely disappear from human societies.

Yet it is undeniable that the constant stresses generated by life under Capitalism degrade the physical, mental and emotional health and well-being of individuals and relationships, greatly increasing the propensity for crimes of passion, desperation and despair. When people are constantly on the edge, always one missed paycheck away from being homeless, then they are much more likely to lash out at each other, fight, exercise dubious judgment, steal, and harm themselves or others as a result.

Arbitrarily defined administrative crimes have no place in an egalitarian, synergistic, free society - meaning that there is no reason or justification to define any action as a crime, which hurts no one (or other living thing) nor the community and does not damage the environment.

Another problematic set of issues under the Capitalist paradigm has to do with the law enforcement and prison systems. A society that defines many things as crimes will have many criminals. Maintaining them in prisons consumes a lot of resources and, as is well documented, creates what amounts to training centers for criminals to learn how to be better criminals.

In addition, many "soft" criminals devolve into "hard" criminals just to survive the prison environment. On top of that, many prisons are now being used as a reservoir of nearly free slave labor by mammoth for-profit enterprises. The potential for abuse and exploitation is enormous, and the instances of it are well-documented in the United States and many other countries. It is no coincidence that the United States has the highest percentage of its population imprisoned of all the countries in the world.

Where many human behaviors are defined as crimes, many more resources must be set aside for law enforcement officers, investigators, prosecutors, defenders, judges and more. This creates a further drain on resources even as it does create some more jobs.

In the coming future, more egalitarian, synergistic paradigms in which there will be no need for money, there will likely be no prostitution or pimping, human trafficking, large-scale smuggling, sweat shops, poaching of endangered species which possess marketable qualities, illegal drug trade, robbery, cons, fraud, identity theft, and many more crimes. Profit - the acquisition of wealth - is the prime and only motive for these kinds of activities.

When money has been rendered irrelevant and a fully vibrant, stimulating, empowering, fulfilling quality of life has become the norm, the reinforcers and motivations for such crimes will be virtually nonexistent.

Of course, there will still be individuals who because of neurological or other dysfunction are bullies who tend towards violence and/or other harmful behaviors; but such phenomena will be relatively rare, individual (not endemic or social), easily identified, contained and resolved, handled, or treated. There will be no social reinforcers for such behaviors so they will tend towards extinction. Most certainly there will no longer be conditions present to encourage and establish them as a pervasive subculture or dominant culture.

The only behaviors that really need to be defined as crimes, as necessitating the confinement of individuals or their restriction, are behaviors that harm others, the community, or the environment. Obvious examples include murder, rape, assault, bullying, intimidation, extortion, kidnapping, imprisonment, enslavement, human trafficking, depriving someone of access to necessities of life such as their place of residence, water, medical care, food, etc.; child abuse of any kind, polluting of air, water, land, food or other vital resources; poaching, strip mining, logging of old-growth forests, genocide, inciting to violence, etc. These are examples of behaviors that can justifiably be defined as crimes. Note that some of the above list are also crimes in Capitalist societies while others are considered acceptable in those societies.

In the new Paradigm, it will be a crime to withhold access to goods or services from any person in any public venue, service provider entity, Distribution Center or Depot. This is to be differentiated from what a person has in their home or place of production. It will still be a crime to steal somebody's equipment or other belongings in their home, person, vehicle, or place of work. But for a service provider, maker or distributor of goods or services, to withhold services in demand of some form of payment or favor, or on the basis of prejudice or hatred of an individual or group, shall be a punishable crime, as will be the robbing of distribution centers for the purpose of smuggling and selling things overseas in capitalist economies.

The decriminalization of behaviors that harm no one is an important aspect of creating a functional, compassionate, dynamic, synergistic society.