What's Hate Got To Do With It?

One of the most memorable concepts to come out of George Orwell's "1984" was that of the "thought crime", where you could be arrested just for _thinking_ the wrong thing about Big Brother, or about the system. And of all the things in the book, this seemed the least likely ever to actually come to pass. The thought was, yes, we have encountered many symptoms of dystopia, but surely this is one case where reason and common sense will prevail.

Except it isn't. Because we now have, on the books and being enforced on a daily basis, something called "hate crime". The essence of a "hate crime" has nothing to do with the objective act that was committed. Rather, it's what the person was thinking while he was committing it. In other words, it is, in essence, a thought crime. Now, we are not -- yet -- at the point of prosecuting crimes where thought is the _only_ component. There has to be some action as well, and that action has to be considered criminal in its own right. But in many cases, it's the thought that counts. In other words, something that might have been ignored, or considered a misdemeanor at best, is now amplified way out of proportion by the "fact" that whoever did it was thinking certain bad thoughts at the time -- thoughts like, by doing this I'm in some way hurting the [insert name of preferred victim group here]. Well, as we all know, some things are just a whole lot worse when they are done with a nasty word on the tip of one's tongue, or the image of some bigoted stereotype in one's mind's eye. Of course, the burden of proof is on the "perp" to prove that he _wasn't_ thinking certain bad thoughts at the time. This would make even Orwell blush. And as to punishment, the essential requirement is that it teach people a damn good lesson for having had certain thoughts. Or if they are not amenable to correction, at least we can remove them from polite society where those thoughts might corrupt others, thus leading _them_ to commit a hate crime and put a strain on our already-overcrowded prisons.

Now, it's just possible -- one might argue -- that the punishments for certain acts are not strict enough. And I can agree with that, in many cases. The answer to this problem, however, is to change the laws, and arrange things so they are reliably enforced, and that the requisite punishments are actually carried out. Our system of justice is so wimpy and limp-wristed, except for really _serious_ things, like "drug abuse", that it's small wonder people rise up and demand justice. If adding "hate" to the mix accomplishes that, they say, well then, so be it. But that sort of jerry-building will come back to bite us all. Before long, acts which would not have been even remotely considered criminal will become so, because of alleged "hate". And soon after that, just alleged "hate", all by itself, like alleged "witchcraft", will become cause for prosecution, with the burden of proof -- once again -- being on the accused.

There is no way to completely eliminate "hate" from the human psyche, or from human society. But we _can_ work on the conditions which give rise to it -- including absurd laws arbitrarily enforced.