What if We Don’t Need Punishment?

I spent a long time trying to figure punishment out. When is it justified? How do we distinguish between the urge to revenge and punishment? What's the relationship between justice and punishment?

I had a sense we are at least a bit too retributive, a bit too eager to punish people we don't like or are mad at. (And maybe a bit too lenient with people we loved or felt fondness or pity for). So I tried to find where we'd be right in being retributive. I thought that if I could untangle the relationship between justice and punishment, I'd be able to distinguish between deserved punishment and undeserved suffering.

It was tedious. And it was not fruitful.

I knew I was exploring the issue philosophically. I didn't realize I was also deeply invested in the issue personally. When someone hurt me, how could I tell if it was deserved? When I was mad at someone, how could I tell if I was being fair? If my actions hurt someone, how could I tell if I was right or wrong?

Lately, I started to wonder, what if I've been asking the wrong questions? What if I just stopped trying to figure out punishment? What if we could live — and even thrive — without it? What alternative could we explore?