On the movie Batman Begins,the caracter of Ducard played by Liam Neeson says:?!
Question: "Criminals thrive on the indulgence of society's understanding." when asked by Bruce Wayne what will happen to a criminal.
What did he mean by saying that?
Answers: "Criminals thrive on the indulgence of society's understanding." when asked by Bruce Wayne what will happen to a criminal.
What did he mean by saying that?
The sympathy and empathy of emotional and sentimental people are easily exploited by those who are arguably undeserving of it. The character is arguing that criminals do not deserve such sentiments and by awarding them this, society is only fueling their criminal activity and serving to allow the number of criminals to increase. This also suggests that the criminals he is speaking of have such little regard for "the other" that such notions as "turn the other cheek" become obsolete. The idea of "understanding" used in the line is meant to represent the misplaced rational excusing of criminal behavior as being outside a criminal's control, by reason of causality. The trend of blaming a criminal's activities on his childhood or a traumatic event mitigates responsibility in such a manner that society's empathy (understanding) essentially distracts from the significance of the criminal act (and by extension, the criminal). Subjective (case-by-case) enforcement of the law (as in the case of the child stealing food) makes the law too fluid and unreliable, which destabilizes order in society, and therefore, eventually the society itself.
If a mean dog ran up and started chewing off your leg, but you were able to reason that the owner of the dog was mean to it and abused it, explaining the dog's temperament, the "society" that is mentioned above would simply allow the dog to keep chewing off its leg because "it's not the dog's fault" and "if we be easy on it maybe it will become nicer and stop chewing."
From my explanation, it is probably fairly obvious that I agree with many of that character's conclusions about human behavior and society's over sentimentality. It is unfortunate that the integrity of the character is lost in the second half of the film due to the fact that they try so hard to make him an egotistical, stereotypical villain.