The idea of Justice is one that has evolved a great deal in human society and over the centuries. It has been at the core of several of the greatest leaps in human progress. Before us now is a growing claim to redefine justice in society. This is almost as bold as redefining men as legal women based on a self-identification and like every other aspect of this toxic movement, so it’s meaning needs to be examined and if necessary, it needs to be defended. This is a sad necessity since it is well-worn knowledge that the woke redefine terms to suit their agendas.
The version of Justice invoked by the CSJ activists is tied to very primitive and toxic iterations of the justice concept; that of retributive justice like Eye-for-eye justice, and cutting-people’s-hands-off-for-theft justice. We date this brutal form of thinking about settling ancient grudges back to primitive humanity where we organized our unstable societies on the principles of Might Makes Right, or some other coercive form of social control. Our sense of justice has drastically evolved since then.
The sense of Justice is so old, we see angry reactions to unfairness and inequity in primates. It’s so old its impossible to avoid symbolic and religious references to it when speaking about it. In my opinion, one of the greatest and most elegant concepts comes from the Black Nation and it’s easily seen as the most sophisticated conceptualization of Justice of the ancient world and I will return with this.
(for notes on my use of “Black Nation” see my piece:
Certainly, the central gods in most religions attempts to confront questions about fairness and unfairness in life. We see these in accounts in biblical stories of God’s treatment of Job; and in the mythical thunderbolt of Zeus and the viciousness of his jealous Wife; as well as in the concepts of Karma and Dharma that evolved in ancient India and migrated into our consciousness in the west beginning in the middle of the last century.
Some cultures viewed the fairness and unfairness of existence as arbitrary and accepted them, some sought for explanations and others sought control. We know that we can filter our interpretation of reality through a sense of justice and this extends from the world at small and personal scales all the way up to the political and social spheres. Fairness, our senses of Righteousness and Justice are central levers that when pushed or pulled by others can motivate human beings towards action. When triggered, our sense of Injustice can raise the emotions sufficient to move people to war and atrocity. We evolved our sense of justice and the institutions we trust to implement it, in order to prevent our primitive desires from wreaking havoc on our lives.
At the individual level, we develop an internal sense of justice and fairness in layers of sophistication as we grow older - and a similar pattern can be seen in how human societies have evolved. The more sophisticated a society’s administration of a justice framework is, the greater the social stability and the prosperity of people.
What we perceived as just or fair as a six year old, or as perceived by a warring tribal chieftain 3,500 years ago, would hopefully be very different from how we viewed fairness as modern adults.
Our views about Justice is dependent on our level of biological and psychological maturity, and it also depends on the type of cultures within which we are embedded. When our societies are unpredictable and we lack a sense of meaning, we can make excuses for why we would act out certain more primitive forms of justice that are less pro-social in modern society than others.
I guess this is going to be a short series since there are half a dozen stories connected to this that demonstrate the evolution of justice through time. I want to give each the credit is is due.
I’ll look at “Eye-for-Eye” codes of law (past and present); I’ll look at Honor Codes like Chivalric and Martial codes; I’ll also look at the concepts of Karma and Dharma. Then I’ll compare the concepts of Judgment and the sword of Justice vs the delivery of vengeance.
Attached to that is the evolving concept of individual freedom, blindness to the individual, and fairness in the law. Finally, I’ll explore the concept of the weight of a human heart, an ancient story about Virtue and the impact of our sins and transgressions on our cosmic souls.
Tat Tvam Asi
I am You and You are Me!