Capital Punishment & The Decline of Libertarianism

A new report from the Death Penalty Information Center says that people were sentenced to die 78 times this year, the first time below 100 since capital punishment was made legal in 1976. Contrast that with 315 sentenced to death in 1996. This year governments in the US killed 43 people; 98 were executed in 1999.

With reports like this one, we can observe public sentiment rising and falling. Currently, US people are starting to move away from a peak of anger and impatience, harsh judging and suspicion. Maybe we're seeing a rise in generosity. The capital punishment statistic could be a reflection of that rise - although I think the decline in death sentences is as much as function of states running out of money.

Jimmy, Paying Close Attention

In suggesting a rise in generosity, I'm referring to actual changes of heart, not statistical results. Polls aggregate trends in individual feelings or thoughts, they're conglomerations of individual islands of sentiment. That's not the same as the influence of the whole polity upon individual people, creating public or collective trends of feelings.

While we may think we're the sole creators of our own values and ideas, actually we swim in a social context; our personal ideas are partly created and framed by those around us. Another way of saying this in more familiar political terms is, libertarianism has peaked and liberal conceptions of social contract and cultural identity are reasserting themselves.

In the next post I'm going to feature one interesting example of this view........