Redemption, Forgiveness and the room to make mistakes ...

This is really rough, I will try to edit this when I have time. I would love to hear ideas from other people about this.

I am fascinated with ideas and themes of "redemption" both for individuals, groups and perhaps even societies. I feel redemption, forgiveness and the ability to just "be" human and make mistakes and to find hope to rebuild and remake oneself are sorely lacking in American society despite our "Judeo-Christian" background. These days Political Correctness, hyper vigilance, paranoia, and a focus on punishment rather than rehabilitation have led to a society that lacks compassion and the room for people to "breath", grow, make small mistakes and then grow up. We have a culture of "zero tolerance" and punitive measures that brand people for life with legal charges and a paper trail for things that in years past would have earned them a warning or some 'wall to wall' counseling. We even believe in life time punishment for crimes, even after someone has served their time. Felons in some states lose the right to vote even AFTER fufilling their prison time. At a time of war many men who have made mistakes as teenagers are now barred from serving the country.

We have created a society that is over regulated, de masculinated and de personalized. Children can no longer be children, there is no room for making mistakes, boys can no longer be boys. There isn't even room to grow up and explore life as everyone is expected to be in a career or college, then MBA's and of course decked out with corporate sponsorships and IRA's and Mutual Funds before they are even out of high school.