Some of you take time out of your lives to tell me that prisoners seen as being "Un-mutual" are penalised by the prison system. Tomorrow, you may tell me that water is wet...
For me - and those who share my disposition - this is another reason why the prison system should be challenged. We are here either to be punished or for public protection, and to detain us for being critical is revolting. Yet there are those of you who, via moral acrobatics, blame me for the penalties inflicted upon me by such a rotten system. I must, you say, keep my mouth shut.
This is moral cowardice and intellectual bankruptcy. If those in power abuse their status then each of us must decide whether to bow our heads or stand and speak. To criticise the latter is sickening.
If I'm kept in prison because I am vocal and challenging then our ire should be directed at the institution which so willingly abuses its power.
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What can one say lol!
ReplyDeleteYou over-romanticise yourself to a risible extent.
Stay in if you want to, but please then don't continually imply that your choosing so emphatically to do so is brave.
Mmmmm you defo want to remain in prison, but wish the blame to go to others. Its your infractions that are keeping you in and no one elses.
ReplyDeleteWhat people are suggesting is follow the rules and leave prison, but if you had done that 20 years ago then you would have been out 20 years ago.
Accept that you want to be in prison (as your family have indicated on facebook) and move on.
Everyone elese complains on the outside why not you!
Yawn.... here come the anons again! Boring now. By the way, Ben's sister is a personal friend of mine and the above comment is rubbish.
ReplyDeleteThe unmutual reference is taken from the TV series the Prisoner, if anyone got the link?
The two anonymous posters above seem to think that Ben's disobedience in prison is worse than murder. How else could they seem to think that a murder Ben's past act of murder does not justify him being in prison, but his rebellious acts in prison do?
ReplyDeleteI do wonder how they come to the conclusion that the judge sending Ben down for ten years is an acceptable sentence (as they state he could have been released at the end of that without objecting to that "fact") but then seem to think that 20 years (set by bureaucrats) for being rebellious is also an acceptable sentence. One of those sentences must be wrong.
He needs encouragement for what he gets right, running alongside negative responses from we, his audience, to what he gets up to that is clearly daft and self-indulgent.
ReplyDeleteI saw last week that admin here was contemplating making free expression less accessible here. Well OK, but what this man needs as much as anything else is some degree of negative feedback. His coping strategies, attitude to professionals inside etc etc are clearly woeful and surely counter-productive.
Like it or not he needs to gain the confidence of those charged with taking on the responsibility of releasing him. It is unfair on them that Ben makes it as difficult as he can for them to feel sure about him (sure in a +ve way, that is).
Hobble commenting by all means ---but what you’ll end up with is more of what mostly occurs here…………a groupie-type love-in which rewards and encourages dumb behaviour by the OP.
@ 1:13 anon - Ben's attitude to authority, and indeed 'professionals' matches mine, and many other people's.
ReplyDeleteIt's not an inherently *bad* thing to challenge what you perceive as incompetence or bad decisions in organisations, especially when they directly impact your life and conditions.
It *certainly* shouldn't mean that you're kept locked up for twenty years past your tariff, just because you make your keepers uncomfortable.
Absolutely right Mark, and Ben's attitude to authority matches mine too. No, you don't get anywhere personaly, but life is not about personal gain, its about having principals and sticking to them, despite all that gets thrown at you for doing it.
ReplyDeleteWhen you see something is wrong, some of us, sometimes many of us see it as our duty to speak out. No, it doesn't make us popular, quite the opposite especially in certain circles, but was Jesus not crucified for healing the sick and doing good among the people? and so it was then as it is today.
It's an illusion to think that personal material wealth and gain gives you any satisfaction or long term favours, ultimately it counts for nothing, or even worse, goes against you at the pearly gates.
So never mind about giving Ben negativity for the sake of it anonymous, it is just making you look like you are jealous of him.
Anon, 1.13. I think Ben's coping strategies must be pretty well honed after all this time, but years of experience have made him jaded with the system. I would have gone round the bend a long time ago.
ReplyDelete@ Infamous - I entirely agree with you. Jesus was crucified because he spoke out most of all about the hypocrisy of sociey (then as now). There is so much corruption and wrong doing by those in high places, but still the ones at the bottom of the pile (socially speaking) are the ones who get punished and demonised as scape-goats for all the ills of society.
ReplyDeleteOf course Ben is jaded with the system and who wouldn't be in his position? The whole 'system' needs to be changed - it should not be about punishment and retribution, but how best to get to the root of the reasons for offending and address those reasons for the good of us all.
I don't like authority either. I hold the police in the highest level of contempt I can muster. Don't particulalry like the Government either (the concept of Government doesn't bother me too much, just what those in power do with it). Quick! I must be a danger to society and therefore should be incarcerated!
ReplyDelete