For Whose Benefit?

I haven’t posted much in the last week because I’ve been real busy at my day job, but now that I just finished off a big chunk, I wanted to talk about one very interesting thing that happened last week. I’m referring, of course, to the re-arrest of Lindsay Lohan.

Everybody bemoans the large amount of attention the news cycle gives to celebrities and their problems, but our common knowledge of these cases often helps us discuss issues that apply broadly to everyone.

For example, there’s this opinion piece by Michael Ventre:

Lohan has an enormous amount of talent, but…she hasn’t distinguished herself as an actress. Sure, she was good in “Mean Girls” and “A Prairie Home Companion,” even “Herbie Fully Loaded.”

Yet Hollywood is all about perception. And what do people remember most, her roles in those films and others? Or the car accidents and partying?

That’s why she belongs in jail. For her own good.

…

Jail might not be the perfect solution, but it’s a terrific last resort. Spending an extended period of time in a facility where your freedom is taken away can be eye-opening.

…

Somebody has to come along and impose some discipline in her life before she completely self-destructs. Maybe it’s time for a warden, some guards and a bunch of other inmates to take over parenting chores.

Uh, maybe some jails have kindly guards whose heartfelt wish it is to see their prisoners get there lives back on track, but I don’t think they’re all that common. And does Michael Ventre realize that those other inmates are there for a reason? The people Lohan would meet in jail are probably not exemplars of personal discipline.

Ventre ends up writing that kind of mindless blather because he starts with the false premise that Lindsay Lohan should be in jail “for her own good.” It sounds wise and clever, but it’s bullshit. Lindsay Lohan shouldn’t be in jail for her own good, she should be in jail for our own good: Get her off the streets before she kills or maims someone.

The idea that we punish people for their own good is a sort of feel-good escape clause for people who lack the moral seriousness to admit that the justice system is there to contain and punish people because we want to change their behavior for the benefit of society.