Spooky Stuff!

Okay, I'm a big nerd and I love, Love, LOVE all the real life spook stuff that is on Discovery and History and A & E around Halloween.

Last night, I caught an interesting episode of some paranormal show about the East State Prison in PA.

Apparently, this prison was build in the 1800s and closed in the later part of the 20th century. It started out with the best of intentions; a different kind of incarceration for prisoners. New, innovative, less cruel. Thing is, it turned out to be even more cruel and unusual than any other prison on earth. Devices that would make a torturer grin with glee were routine. Things like tongue clips to shred the muscles of the tongue were used to "promote" silence amongst the prisoners.

How could something that started out as being a new and positive step in tthe right direction for corrections go so tragically wrong? Well, how often does this happen?

So often, things are started with the best of intentions...yet end up being detriments. Communism? Started out as a great theory. Equality amongst all people. In practice? Doesn't work real well. Organized religion? Again, sometimes works, sometimes has really harmful consequences. Guns? In the hands of the right people, no problem. Thing is, the "right people" aren't the only gun owners.

There are always a variety of aspects for why something is started as a good thing, but then ends up being harmful. At the basis of almost everything that goes bad are human beings. The decisions to abuse something good for power, ego or benefit are human emotions which most humans would be better off without.