Punishments Of the Mind

Punishments are various in extent and in being. Who gets to be punished and to what extent should people punished for what crimes. And more so who gets to decide on those punishments. The easy answer would be those with power, but in trying to configure that "easy" answer a thought came to mind: How did those with power get their power and how is that power being used to punish? As I thought in and out of discussions with my peers, I couldn't help but to think about how the fear of punishment has honestly become the most powerful "being" in the world. The fear of being punished by someone or something (What exactly those somes are we don't even know) dominates and controls. We act accordingly because we think about the consequences that would occur if we didn't do it. We think about the possibly of being caught by some enforcer of some kind and the punishment they may deem appropriate. 

In that way of functioning, as people we lose out sense of self in a way. We relinquish our true freedom in order to accept a subconscious takeover of our mind by punishments. The connotation of the word punishment is harsh, it is striking of fear and is used to scare us into compliance, and it’s not individualized it broad it makes us all comply because no matter who you are whenever you think about doing something you think about the consequences. When you think about the consequences, if they’re bad, you automatically think about the punishment that can follow. No matter how freeing or harmless the action may seem to the individual, if it is deemed punishable by those in power then the individual pulls back because the action, no matter how it feels, may not be worth the consequence.

Punishments may not be physical, maybe the actual societal punishment is the fearfully driven enslavement of our minds.