In The Hideous Strength there is important concept of
treating criminals as test subjects. This is seen in several areas, the (phony)
Director Jules mentioned how criminals cannot control their behavior any more
then a disease and instead of punishing them you need to “cure them.”
Furthermore, the Chief of police in the N.I.C.E stated to Mark that the police
and sociologist need to “work hand and hand” as there jobs are really the same.
Meaning the police are not to capture bad guys, but to just form or shape the
behaviors populace. This is seen when they engineer riots to shape how the
towns people are to behave.
Lastly Lord Feverstone
notes how if you rename experimental testing to remedial treatment then people
are ok with it.
Is this purely science fiction or perhaps only realistic in
the Nazi era? Not at all. Recently in my American Studies senior seminar I peer
reviewed another classmates paper about “civil commitment”. The term itself
remind me of something Feverstone would have personally named, as civil
commitment sounds positive. However, the practice allows a person to be held in
prison even after his term has expired. The person is not committed a new
crime, they have just been diagnosed by a psychologist has been sexually
violent predator(another name
invented to demonize). Furthermore, this diagnosis has only a 50%
application rate by psychologist, meaning an individual might as well have a
coin flipped rather then being diagnoses. This allows the state to give
treatment upon the individual and can force it upon them against their will in
some cases.
This should be in contrast to C.S. Lewis view of criminals
where one of his main characters in the Hideous Strength husband was in fact a
criminal. Ivy Magg’s husband committed a minor crime and was punished, but
before he was to be released he was taken by N.I.C.E to “have remedial training”
might as well call it “civil commitment.”
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