What is it about injustice that people find so disgusting versus other offenses? It seems that injustice is a topic that just about anyone can get riled up about. Justice is one of the few qualities that is nearly universally seen as good and noble and true. People may have their own ideas of what is just, but justice as an ideal is highly regarded.
Our desire for justice is one of the core things that sets us apart from "lesser" beings. It's also one of our only ways of dealing with the randomness inherent in life. I wonder if either of those has anything to do why so many people consider the ideal of justice to be so sacred, and injustice to be so disgusting.
Or maybe people don't care as much about justice as I perceive.
2 comments:
I don't really feel like Justice is a method for dealing with "randomness" - more so I believe it to be a way to enforce "The Golden Rule" - treat others as you yourself would like to be treated. In this way it's actually a way of enforcing morals more than explaining or dealing with randomness.
If I'm walking down the street and a tree falls on my foot, I don't feel like I need some sort of justice.
If I'm walking down the street and you purposefully run over my foot with your Segue, I expect justice of the most severe kind.
Actually, getting your foot run over by a Segway doesn't hurt any more than someone casually stepping on it. In fact, maybe less, since the tires are full of air.
It seems to me that the Golden Rule is, in a way, there to prevent randomness. If people didn't act in the way that they'd want to be treated themselves, life would just be a long string of unexpected, selfish acts. Morals replace an element of randomness with consistency.
Perhaps not the ideal word to use there.
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