Ramblings on the nature of humanity! FUN!

Had a vaguely epic argument with someone I just met yesterday. (hurray oxymorons). Essentially I argued about South African history and policy with a… wait for it… south African. Which is a first. And I'm kinda proud of myself for holding my own. But the guy was also kinda psycho and while not the brightest crayon in the box he was armed with statistics about places I had never heard of. AND he didn’t argue fair, he kept changing the subject every five minutes. And did I say he was kinda psycho?
It was when he said that Saudi Arabia has a low crime rate because they chop off peoples hands that I realized this. Though I should perhaps have picked up on it when he said that if someone commits a crime they should forfeit their humanity. Seriously. “if someone commits a crime, they are no longer human and should be denied all human rights.”
It took me another half hour at least of arguing our way through the UN, Iraq, US foreign policy before we finally came back to crime which is what we were really talking about in the first place. How do you solve South Africa’s crime problem?
And again this guy said “we should have a strict death penalty.” *
Finally he revealed that the reason he felt this way was because he had been violently mugged at gun point.
Oh.
I am often frustrated by the racism of white south Africans which they claim isn’t racism at all, which is the most frustrating part. “people in the townships are lazy” for example. So many people tout the story of how someone they know knew someone who offered a beggar a job and he said ‘no, I’m doing perfectly well on the streets. I drive a car, etc.’ It’s a sort of urban legend with out the gore.
But the catch is: there ARE people like that. And so many white South Africans have been robbed that their fear and frustration is at least understandable.
And I don’t know the answer. Sometimes I wonder if I am just innocent and naive and that we should cut off the hands of people who steal.
Its so easy to be horrified by the story of a man who shot a 16 year old hoodlum on the New York Subway in the 80s when I live in the New York of the 00’s. When that crime happened the man was held up as a hero, but looking back now people are disgusted. And I guess the true test of your humanity is not how you behave in a peaceful stable society, but how you would behave in Nazi Germany. Or apartheid South Africa.
What is humanity anyway?
And once again I end by saying I know nothing. Which becomes more apparent every day.
Also: I would love it if people commented. I have no idea who is reading this and it feels very much like I am writing into a void. Just a “hey, its ___.” Would be cool. Though I would also love peoples thoughts and reactions too. Do I sound like a pompous asshole? Do my thoughts have ANY relevancy/legitimacy? Do you think I am completely off the wall? Its totally easy. Just click the little thing that says 0 comments.

*note: I don’t support the death penalty in America more on logistic grounds than anything else. Due to the complicated appeals process a death row inmate receives it actually is more expensive to execute someone than to jail them for life. (seriously.) Also, too many people have been exonerated for my comfort. If we haven’t killed an innocent person yet, it feels like we will soon. And I also don’t understand why state sanctioned murder is okay, if other murder is not okay, though I do understand how victims families would want this. I do NOT believe people who support the death penalty are morally bankrupt. I think that there are reasonable people on both sides. But I do not think killing ever Tsotsi they get their hands on will solve anything for South Africa at all.