I'm sorry to butt in Strolling Johnny, but isn't it only "immaterial" what happens next in the special sense of Who Cares? Or perhaps, Not My Problem? How does that square with duty to society? What does the sense of one particular short-term quick-fix hold against any interest in the bigger questions?

Not everybody locks their doors now, even with having things to lose, and jobs. Again I think the most interesting thing in the film Bowling For Columbine was some observations about a culture of fear in the U.S. We seem to be the reigning kings of violent crime among civilised societies. But Moore's film did seem to return to liberal party line views and sentiments no matter what it observed along the way.

I think systematic punishments might be an antidote if evildoers were generally smart, informed, and calculating, like in melodramas. If they sat back weighing the consequences of their actions reasonably, it would tend to deter them more I suppose. But aren't many of them stupid, unreasoning, and cocksure they will escape consequences because they imagine they are so bright and clever?

I don't think more money and less work is an antidote either, it's a bottomless pit. People want enough money to guard against everything they're afraid of, and as they get more money the scale just slides. It's never enough. So we have suit-and-tie crime of the soft-handed Not My Problem/Who Cares variety, and also the punky sort always seeking the nearest weaker victim. It's not that one may cause the other, it's pretty much the same thing.

People don't know how to be proud without proof, and don't know how to be ashamed of apparent success. I think it's a failure of aesthetic sense, a failure of culture to be clean and interesting. Our culture invites you along like a friend, picks your pockets, takes you nowhere, leaves you there, scared. Works really well with kids. This may be the dumbest idea yet offered here, but it's what I generally tend to think.