The sleepwalking society

I was thinking about what criminal justice would be like in a society run on the Christian paradox of justice and mercy.

People would be punished like normal for their crimes. However, with sincere repentance, meaning genuine effort to change themselves as demonstrated by their demeanor and actions, they should be treated like a citizen again and given all the help they ask for to correct themselves.

But what would this require? People who worked in the system would have to decide, by working with the inmates, who is sincere and earnest and who is not. And certainly no bureaucratic system of rules can determine this. Any "test" can be gamed. A human being fully awake and in touch with his intuitive side, in intimate contact with the inmates, would be required for this.

Along these lines my thinking went, and it occurred to me that our whole entire society is just the opposite. We're all asleep, even when we're not. We do our jobs, but our minds and hearts are somewhere else. Incompetence and error are more often the result of apathy than lack of personal potential. And just think, America, the most powerful and blah blah blah civilization in history, is pretty much maintained entirely by people who are asleep, who require bureaucratic procedure to function.

And we wonder why civilization seems to be crumbling around us. Society is composed of individuals. When the individuals have all lost their zest and earnestness and sense of purpose and common bond, the society cannot last much longer.

What would society be like if everybody were fully awake every moment and selflessly enthusiastic about their place in the world? The world would be a completely different place.

Swami Sirvananda said, "Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success."

(The ideas I'm floating around in this post were largely inspired by the work of Samael Aun Weor, especially "The Revolution of the Dialectic". I highly recommend it.)