Hang the blighters

Directors of Bridgecorp were yesterday convicted on multiple charges brought under the Securities Act, the Crimes Act and the Companies Act. They have been remanded in custody and the judge has signalled that they will go to prison. Granny Herald reports:

One investor, Rex Warren invested $1 million in the company and today said it was the right outcome but it brought little closure. “Of course they're guilty, but the punishment doesn't fit the crime. I would be willing to pull the lever or pull the trigger if they were hung,'' said the Katikati man. Warren believed his loss could have been avoided. "I can say we made mistakes, but in my case most of the (Bridgecorp) staff knew what was happening when we invested our money but they didn't say anything.''

Well it’s hanged, not hung -- but I guess this is not a good moment for quibbling. Is there anyone else who wonders why the Herald bothers printing such offensive ignorance? So Rex Warren of Katikati is angry. But do he and other investors accept no responsibility whatever for their choice to invest in Bridgecorp? Is it always someone else’s fault?

No doubt there is ample reason for anger with the Bridgecorp directors, but precisely what is achieved by putting these men in prison? Yes, yes, it’s to send a signal…etc, to make an example, to satisfy our somewhat barbaric need to see people punished and suffer pain. I know all that, but it does not answer the question. I would have thought that the public humiliation of months of trial and then conviction would have been enough. These men with whatever skills they have could be sent to work to earn whatever they can for reparation. They won’t achieve anything much in prison.

We are a punitive, retributive culture, despite centuries of Christianity. Christians have been among the cruelest at times. I realise now I do not wish to be part of that culture. Perhaps I started exempting myself from it in about 1941 when I watched Mrs Copsey strapping kids because they had, often unintentionally displeased her. Auckland Grammar in my time was a violent and blind culture of incompetent teachers who thought whacking boys achieved something. It literally disgusted me. The violence moved seamlessly to the rugby field and general attitudes. We feel better to see people hurt, punished.

It is Good Friday as I write this. 2012. This is what I said in our little meditation group this morning:

Numbered with the transgressors - 6 April 2012

...the old King James Version words of Isaiah 53:
He poured out his soul unto death;
and he was numbered with the transgressors;
and he bore the sin of many...

It is very ancient and very beautiful and very moving poetry. It comes from centuries before the time of Jesus. It starkly depicts what happens to people. Never mind whether they are good people or bad. The fact is, as the poet realised, it is a cruel and unjust world.

We go on and on these days about deserving. Deserving has nothing to do with it. Good people suffer. In the towns of Syria... Nature takes over and devastates our lives. We get leukaemia, or alzheimers. Babies are born with some lethal disorder. In another way, after a lifetime of devoted public service you may stand in the dock accused of some neglect as a company director, and suffer utter and prolonged humiliation. People are accused unjustly, or justly. What is the difference...? as Robert Burns said,

Who made the heart, ‘tis he alone decidedly can try us...
Then at the balance let’s be mute, we never can adjust it.
What’s done, we partly may compute,
But know not what’s resisted.

The Jews under Jewish law were in no doubt that Jesus was guilty as charged -- guilty they thought of blasphemy. The Romans under their law were not so sure -- he may have been guilty of sedition -- but Roman rule was in any case corrupt, and they needed peace in Palestine.

And so, in a morass of conflicting motives and ideals, of corrupt people, frightened people, ignorant people, Jesus chooses to stand there silent. Where would you start, anyway? His contemplative love of the Father, his complete confidence of the Father’s love for him, at this moment is the sustenance he needs. He is content to be numbered with the transgressors. Beaten, tortured, humiliated, condemned. We too have to fall into silence, if even for just this short time...

He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows...
He poured out his soul unto death;
and he was numbered with the transgressors;
and he bore the sin of many...