Julia Jones wrote:
Helen Krummenacker wrote:
Now I'm wondering what determines whether a convicted criminal gets their mind messed with or gets locked up. Age? The Federation didn't seem to have any qualms about messing with the kids memories to get them to incriminate Blake.
Here it isn't the Federation, but corrupt Federation officials at the highest levels - not the same thing.
It is the same thing. The Federation is corrupt.
What goes on behind closed doors is
not necessarily what is allowed under official policy.
I agree there. But official policy is only for show.
Vila's psychiatric treatment seems to me to be an official part of the
penal
system, and attempt to reform him so that he is A Good Citizen, what was done to falsify a case against Blake was not part of the official system.
Not the part of the "official system" that the Federation wants you to see. But it is still part of the system's nature. You can't conduct mass exterminations on the scale spoken about in TWB unless the entire system approves. They are all corrupt, and the casualness of it all provides even more evidence.
You can't really draw any conclusions from what happened to the
children in Blake's case
Woolly thinking, Julia (Very comforting when worn next to the skin:-)
other than a corrupt psychiatrist
He appear to have some psychiatric training, but then he would have to if his department was involved in using memory blocks. But he also is a doctor of medicine.
may have no
qualms about abusing children in order to frame a political agitator.
You're wrong. Dr Havant talks of his "department" infecting Blake with a rapidly terminal disease. Please note, his "department". And it wouldn't be Dr Havant who implants these memories into the subjects, his "department" would do it. The head of the school and the clinic would also have to be involved to arrange the visits. Blake believes that the Administration has stuck its neck out. It hasn't. For them this is just common everyday stuff. "Dictate a letter Miss Jones, and by the way, pass me that unofficial execution order."
Seriousness of the offence? Repeated offences? Guessing from what little we've been given (Vila's treatments and imprisonment, the Federation's use of mind controls in general and desire to keep a labor force), the first step for nonviolent, nonpolitical crimes would be take them into custody and try to revise their minds to become law abiding citizens. It might even be possible
to
do this much without a trial
Possible, but to my mind unlikely. Vila talks with pride about how his brain was adjusted. The Federation would want this kind of thing to be accepted as normal, as hiding it away is dangerous. So you put the crook on trial and "for the good of the state and the good of its citizens, and ultimately the good of the recipient, the accused is sentenced to mental re-adjustment."
-- after all, if you are already
law-abiding, it won't change you,
Mentally adjusting people who may be innocent is a waste of time and could be bad publicity. Although who is to say what is "law abiding"?
And once you've been cured of your unfortunate mental illness, you'll be terribly grateful to the state for your medical treatment.
You'd perhaps pretend to be, but then if you aren't, who is going to listen to the protests of a common criminal?
Jenny
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