By The Reverend Hanns Skoutajan
Op-Ed Contributor
True North Perspective
But, is it going to do him any good? It’s a question that has come to mind as I read up on the fate of Conrad Black.
I have to admit that I have little love for this very arrogant man and his spouse who admitted that her avarice knows no limits. All his life has been determined by an inordinate desire to be above all others. One of his common expressions is “underling”, that is someone, anyone, who does not belong to his exalted circle. Thus he became a media baron, a British Lord, who could use the power of “his” press to influence society, indeed the world. At costume parties he appeared in the clothes of the aristocracy. He longed to be part of a kind of mediaeval aristocracy in the present age, and was successful.
For one of his kind it will undoubtedly be a terrible comedown to be considered a felon and to have to share his living space with people that are obviously underlings and losers. Undoubtedly he will live within his inner space. He is clever enough to avoid offending those around him. Keeping his mouth shut is the problem as his attorney found out.
I expect that soon he will be teaching fellow inmates and will ascend to a more comfortable rank in the new society to which he has been consigned, if only in his own mind.
But the question comes to me: Will it do him any good, that is, will it change him, is he capable of change at this late stage of life? He is after all no longer a callow youth.
I have always been against prisons. Having lived in Kingston I am familiar with the forbidding gray walls. I have also visited inside and am familiar with its dungeon-like environment. Except for people who must be confined for the safety of society, prisons do little for the felon especially one like Black who has a very exalted sense of himself, who in fact believes that what he has done is not criminal. He says, it is “a travesty” that he should have been found guilty by those who are definitely not his peers.
It has occurred to me that perhaps prison life, the forced comedown, is precisely what he needs, but again, I doubt it. Were he to serve the entire 6 1/2 years the amount of money spent on his incarceration will be immense as has been the cost of his trial.
Will it do him any good? I hope it does. I hope that he could come out of this experience with a new understanding of life, a new appreciation of the “common mortal,” but again I doubt it.
His crime was robbing the rich, not a la Robin Hood, he did not give it to the poor, but enhanced his own great wealth at the expense of the shareholders of Haliburton. Rest assured they aren’t poor. I suppose one can argue that their losses somehow filter down to the underlings, but it has a long way to seep. His crime has besmirched the capitalist system as did the crimes of the heads of Enron and other wealthy corporations, a system which they hold in high regard. Quite a few have fallen in the last few years. Has it been a deterrent?
Rather than continuing to spend huge amounts of money on him it should be incumbent upon Black and his kind to make good others’ losses. Perhaps there should be a special tax system by which his future earnings could be used for socially redemptive purposes. Such a tax should make it impossible for him and his wife to live not differently than those of the middle class, perhaps even the upper middle class. It should. What a comedown that would be! Giving him the freedom to use his skills to create wealth but not for himself is my suggestion. No Palm Beach mansion, private airplane, yacht, and other real estate abroad.
Black is a very intelligent man who could raise a great deal of money. He is an excellent writer and researcher and undoubtedly some in prison, if he indeed becomes a teacher, will benefit greatly from his tutelage .
One in every hundred Americans are behind bars. One hundredth of the American population are more or less unproductive, living at the tax payers expense. Deduct from that the violent offenders and there still is left a very large number of people who are perfectly capable of working productively and contributing positively to society.
Does imprisoning offenders do any good? I am sure that securing Black behind razor wire and feeding him food he’s never seen before and separating him from those he loves and doing menial chores will do no Americans any good. It’s an awful price to pay to assuage society’s sense of vengeance.
Will it do him any good? It’s probably an irrelevant question inasmuch as the president of the United States, his host and ideological soul mate will in all likelihood pardon him.
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