Culture of vengeance fate american justice

Terry K. Aladjem0521886244, 9780521886246, 9780511379314

America is driven by vengeance in Terry Aladjem’s provocative account – a reactive, public anger that is a threat to democratic justice itself. From the return of the death penalty to the wars on terror and in Iraq, Americans demand retribution and moral certainty; they assert the “rights of victims” and make pronouncements against “evil.” Yet for Aladjem this dangerously authoritarian turn has its origins in the tradition of liberal justice itself – in theories of punishment that justify inflicting pain and in the punitive practices that result. Exploring vengeance as the defining problem of our time, Aladjem returns to the theories of Locke, Hegel and Mill. He engages the ancient Greeks, Nietzsche, Paine and Foucault to challenge liberal assumptions about punishment. He interrogates American law, capital punishment and images of justice in the media. He envisions a democratic justice that is better able to contain its vengeance.

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Table of contents :
Cover……Page 1
Half-title……Page 3
Title……Page 5
Copyright……Page 6
Contents……Page 9
Acknowledgments……Page 11
Preface……Page 13
A Note on Liberalism……Page 21
1 Liberalism and the Anger of Punishment: The Motivation to Vengeance and Myths of Justice Reconsidered……Page 23
American Variations……Page 44
Within the Law……Page 47
The Supporting Myth……Page 50
Theoretical Iterations……Page 54
2 Violence, Vengeance, and the Rudiments of American Theodicy……Page 73
Split Justice……Page 74
Devil in the Details……Page 80
Sadistic Pleasures, Vengeful Fantasies, Victim–Heroes……Page 86
An American Idiom……Page 90
Theodicy and the Liberal Aporia of Evil……Page 91
Secular Evil……Page 94
Pain……Page 97
Death……Page 102
Cruelty……Page 106
3 The Nature of Vengeance: Memory, Self-Deception, and the Movement from Terror to Pity……Page 116
Of Eyes……Page 120
Eyes and Identity, Recognition, and Repulsion……Page 122
Oedipus……Page 124
What Eyes Must See: The loved one lost; proof; the villain caught……Page 130
To See It in the Eyes of an Offender: To make them see. . . …….Page 131
To Be Seen as Victorious: Vengeance face to face……Page 134
Refusing to See: The blind eye of justice. . . …….Page 137
Sartre, Freud, and Self-Deception: What one wants to see in vengeance……Page 138
Masks……Page 143
Of Audiences, Gods, and Honor: Terror and pity……Page 148
The Play, the Plot, and the Catharsis of Revenge as an Attainment of Pity……Page 159
4 Revenge and the Fallibility of the State: The Problem of Vengeance and Democratic Punishment Revisited, or How America Should Punish……Page 167
The Presumption of Infallibility in America……Page 171
Democratic Doubt……Page 177
Restraint and Accountability……Page 186
Mercy, Forgiveness, Acceptance……Page 191
Truth and Justice (or if prosecutors stopped taking sides)……Page 194
Notes……Page 199
Bibliography……Page 255
Index……Page 263