Back in the winter of 1982, Air Florida flight 90 took off from National Airport. The first officer noticed dangerous readings on some instruments and pointed them out to the captain. The captain told him he was wrong, and he accepted the captain's authority. He did nothing. Thirty seconds later the plane crashed into the 14th Street Bridge. Everyone on board died except for four passengers rescued out of the icy river.

During the latter decades of the 20th and first part of the 21st century, millions and millions of first officers on spaceship earth noticed that climate and nuclear dangers loomed. But every authoritative captain in sight, from elected officials to CEOs to media pundits, said "Don't be a fool. I've got this." And millions upon millions sat back and mumbled "Oh, all right, if you're sure."

The people pushing through the vote this week at the United Nations to create a treaty next year banning nuclear weapons are engaged in necessary disobedience to mainstream authority and acceptance. The people putting their bodies in the way of a pipeline in North Dakota are disobeying immoral orders.

Punishment is a popular pastime for humans. Parents punish children. Teachers punish students. Employers punish workers. Courts punish lawbreakers. People punish each other. Governments punish 'enemies'. And, according to some, God punishes evildoers.

What is 'punishment'? Punishment is the infliction of violence as revenge on a person who is judged to have behaved inappropriately. It is a key word we use when we want to obscure from ourselves that we are being violent.

The violence inflicted as punishment can take many forms, depending on the context. It might involve inflicting physical injury and/or pain, withdrawal of approval or love, confinement/imprisonment, a financial penalty, dismissal, withdrawal of rights/privileges, denial of promised rewards, an order to perform a service, banishment, torture or death, among others.

Given the human preoccupation with punishment, it is perhaps surprising that this behaviour is not subjected to more widespread scrutiny. Mind you, I can think of many human behaviours that get less scrutiny than would be useful.

Radicalization: what is it good for? The song, “War? What is it good for?”, tells us that war is worth “absolutely nothing!” Is radicalization the same? Just something that turns everyday, ordinary people into gun-toting, bomb-throwing terrorists? The media give us that image after every new terror incident here in the U.S. or in Europe involving presumed Islamists. How did these people turn into suicide bombers, gunmen/women, decapitators, torturers, or whatever? Well, it must have been “radicalization.” So then we need to know how that happened. Where and when did their radicalization start? Was it from a web site? Or the influence of a religious leader or friends or family or even a spouse?

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Armed Palestinian "Black September" guerrillas
seized the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok, threatened to execute the six
Israelis inside and blow up the building, but suddenly surrendered
saying, "We love your king," when told that King Bhumibol Adulyadej
was appointing his son that day in 1972 as sole heir to the throne.
   Today, while Thailand mourns King Bhumibol's death on October 13,
his son Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn is preparing to fulfill his
father's decision and become this country's next monarch.
   But on December 28, 1972, the king's royal appointment ceremony of
then-Prince Vajiralongkorn to be crown prince and heir, was almost
marred by bloodshed across town.
   Four Palestinian guerrillas wearing jackets in the sweltering heat
had arrived in a taxi at the Israeli Embassy on Soi Langsuan near the
British Embassy just before lunch on December 28.
   They climbed "over the wall, using the embassy insignia [placard]
as a step-ladder," the embassy's messenger Anek Bariman said hours
later.