Sunday, May 4, 2008

"To Protect and Hurt"


Fear of being mugged and robbed is a general fear in American society. This fear is fueling the debate over the 2nd amendment, and is the motivation behind the following Chindogu candidates. I find that these object are more terrifying then the fear of being mugged, because they expose the open social acceptance of violence as a valid form a conflict resolution. Yonko Design's Anthony James sheds some light on the Pepper Knuckles, "...Designer Idan Arbel has come up with this brilliant idea. Once you have successfully rendered your assailant a curled up crying mess on the floor, with these “Pepper Knuckles, you can proceed to give him the beating of a lifetime. Go ahead, hit a criminal when he/she is down… it’s only fair play. While you are at it, steal his/her wallet and drop it off at the nearest police station just for laughs." It stuns me that a victim of a robbery would go as far as give his assailant "the beating of a lifetime". It would be more dramatizing to inflict severe pain and injury to someone, than it would be being robbed or injured myself. Sure, it is not fair to robbed. But, retaliating against the perpetrator does not solve the problem of crime. It doesn't even solve the problem of being mugged in the first place. And retaliation does not even address the issue of environmental justice, at best it makes things worse. 

What happened to turning the other cheek, or embracing the Other? According to a study by the Graduate Center in New York, over 79% of the United States claim to be Christian (wiki). With a demographic this enormous this attitude towards violence does not make sense to me. Jesus would not have a gun rack on his bed! I am also fairly certain that He would definitely not buy "one for each side of the bed!" I propose a device that captures the robber in a large glass cup (similar to the way one captures a spider in the kitchen), then a group of peer counselors retrieve him/her, rehabilitate them, and give them a job (possibly as a counselor). Once a critical mass of rehabilitated counselors is reached, they can run for office and start NPO's to try to actually change the environment that caused them the rob in the first place. Watch the video, it is worth it.


Pepper Knuckles
Chindogu
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The Back-Up
Chindogu
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[links: www.geekologie.com & www.the-backup.com & www.yankodesign.com]

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