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JUSTICE
Introduction
Justice is a concept that involves people getting what they have
coming to them. In a sense, the
good reap rewards, the bad reap punishment. This essay will
examine justice in its many forms
and explain the benefits and shortcomings of each form.
Justice can be broken into three major categories: social,
personal, and supernatural. Social
ustice includes a government's legal system, personal justice
involves the a person's own ethics,
and supernatural justice refers to karma, benevolent gods, and
the like. I'll address each one in
detail.
Social Justice
Social justice is the largest and most important form of justice
to most societies. It entails the act
of setting up a system of laws established by the society
itself, and then having officials enforce
the laws. Social justice is usually influenced by the dominant
religion and governmental group.
This is usually a major benefit to the people because it
establishes an ethical code of conduct for
the masses. Through social justice everyone knows what's right
and wrong according to their
peers, and they will be able to understand the disciplinary
action that will be placed on them if
they go against those laws.
The major problem with this system of justice is that it allows
the majority to create the terms of
ustice and the ethics of the minorities will usually be treated
as less important, or completely
ignored. This can be seen in many societies with controversial
issues. Euthanasia is a good
example. The majority may think it euthanasia is wrong and pass
laws punishing those who
assist others in suicide. These laws are viewed as ethically
correct to the masses, however for the
few who think that euthanasia is an acceptable practice, they
are now considered wrong. Thus,
social justice is for some and not for others.
Personal Justice
This happens to everyone regardless of their moral values.
Personal justice, sometimes called a
conscious, occurs when a person has an emotional response to
their actions as a product of aperson's upbringing and their
learned ethics. The view of personal justice is usually similar to
the
ustice of the society a person was raised in, but as a person
matures and experiences life and
other cultures their personal ideals of justice usually
change.
For example, most children are brought up thinking that stealing
is wrong because the society
they grew up in feels that stealing is wrong. Thus, the personal
justice for that person is that
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thieves should be punished. However, in growing up a person may
see that certain corporations
have unethical business practices and they may then feel
justified to steal from them to hinder
that company's growth.
Personal justice is very helpful because it conforms to a
person's own ethics. Everyone is
different and changing thus making social justice clumsy and
hard to work with on an individualscale, but personal justice will
always be fitting to a person's own beliefs because they are part
of
a person's beliefs.
Of course, this can be a major problem for other people if a
person suddenly feels justified that
they should be the homicidal king of the world. This is one
reason why total Arian governments
tend to fail. Personal justice can also be a problem to those
who take it too hard. If a person does
something that they feel is very wrong, they may never forgive
themselves for it and then their
personal justice will plague them for the rest of their
lives.
Supernatural Justice
It is believed by many people that justice is controlled by a
god, energy, or force. It is also
believed that this entity is infallible and exhibits perfect
justice. Ask a Hindu what justice is and
they will explain Karma to you, ask a Christian and they will
explain Judgment Day. These are
both examples of a form of justice that goes beyond human
intervention being controlled by a
supernatural force.
Most people who believe in supernatural forms of justice take
comfort in the fact that justice will
be served to everyone and are also deterred from doing what is
wrong because they fear the
supernatural justice being brought upon themselves. Most people
who don't believe in a
supernatural form of justice believe that it is a human creation
designed to scare people into
doing what a religion deems as right, and that people are more
sedated in the thought that a godor similar entity will punish the
wicked for them.
Assuming that supernatural justice is real, then people don't
need to worry about justice at the
social or personal level because it is already taken care of for
us. This is obviously beneficial to
all people because in the end every one will get what they
deserve whether it be good or bad.
If supernatural justice is merely a human creation then you have
a problem because some people
may become apathetic about justice thinking that justice will be
taken care of by a higher-power
when in fact it won't. For example, Christian teaching says to
turn the other cheek and not pass
udgment on people. However, if the Christian god doesn't exist
then justice will never be dealt
with in a Christian society and the wrong-doers will never
receive punishment.
Conclusion
This essay isn't meant to claim that one form of justice is
better than the other. The essay's
purpose is to objectively point out the benefits and flaws of
each form of justice making it easier
to compare them. Everybody would agree that justice is important
in our lives regardless of the
form it takes, but you'll notice that none of the forms of
justice are without flaw. It then becomes
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important to find a system of justice for a society to function
properly and prevent disorder.
Personally, I feel that the ideal form of justice would mean an
increase in personal justice, a
decrease in social justice, the removal of supernatural justice.
I think that justice would work
better if people were taught to be more responsible for their
own actions, thus the increase in
personal justice. However, I feel that there is a necessary need
for social justice to remainbecause people need to be kept in check
by their peers in order to prevent chaos. I would like to
see the removal of supernatural justice because until the
supposed entity actually explains to me
how it decides what's right and wrong, I'd rather just take my
chances without it.
