Excerpts from Ideology ∨ Pathology || Incarceration ⩒ Transformation by Shel Raphen
"A core component of the carceral ideology, the system of ideas that justifies prisons, is the notion that there are people who are intrinsically bad, intrinsically criminals, and everyone else is an innocent, and the innocents must be protected from the criminals. The ideology of incarceration forgoes the possibility of transformation. They are fundamentally incompatible. [...] The ideology of incarceration sees Crime as a pathology, but not that the criminals are mentally ill and deserve therapy and resources; but that society has been infected with Crime. [...]
As Žižek says, we internalize the ideologies of our societies. Even if we vocally purport to subscribe to an Anarchist ideology, or even a Prison Abolitionist ideology, we have all been raised in and internalized the Incarceration Ideology. [...]
What is troubling is that, if there is no possibility of individual transformation, then there is no possibility of societal transformation. If Abuse is not a symptom of patriarchy, but a permanent irreparable state driven by holding a poisonous ideology—and if people who hold problematic ideologies are likewise irreparable—then we are completely out of luck for having any hope of positive change in society."