JUSTICE: SOME PERTINENT THOUGHTS
First, my all-time favorite quote reference justice:
O SON OF SPIRIT!
The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee.
By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor.
Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be.
Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness.
Set it then before thine eyes.
--The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh
Second, as far as I am concerned:
1) JUSTICE: reflects a sense of the whole and the dignity of all.
I think--without rigorous study--that justice alone is enough to maintain a vital and cohesive society.
*I believe--once again without rigorous study--that the aim of justice is not only to maintain order on all levels, but also to provide for the achievement of full human potential and to protect the innocent.
2) LAW: Law is at best a workable compromise ... between justice and social mediation.
The restraint imposed by law-- if it does not have justice or egalitarian social order
as its aim
--can be disregarded.
NOTE: Not disregarded with impunity ... enforcement is spotty and subject to prejudice; however, you and I need not accumulate personal guilt about our behavior.
TO: The duty of the lawman is to enforce the law.
I RESPOND: One who enforces the law never questioning justice, is not so much a lawman as a minion.
Law for law's sake
is the love of tyrants.
I will respect the law only so much as it approximates justice.
I will respect the law if the law is respectable.
Mercy: There are cases when mercy is just.
Thomas Light asked, "Is justice a dried leaf free to blow before political winds?"
*I believe--once again without rigorous study--that the aim of justice is not only to maintain order on all levels, but also to provide for the achievement of full human potential and to protect the innocent.
2) LAW: Law is at best a workable compromise ... between justice and social mediation.
The restraint imposed by law-- if it does not have justice or egalitarian social order
as its aim
--can be disregarded.
NOTE: Not disregarded with impunity ... enforcement is spotty and subject to prejudice; however, you and I need not accumulate personal guilt about our behavior.
TO: The duty of the lawman is to enforce the law.
I RESPOND: One who enforces the law never questioning justice, is not so much a lawman as a minion.
Law for law's sake
is the love of tyrants.
I will respect the law only so much as it approximates justice.
I will respect the law if the law is respectable.
Mercy: There are cases when mercy is just.
Thomas Light asked, "Is justice a dried leaf free to blow before political winds?"
posted by Thunderpen | 10:54 AM
5 Comments:
Our law is overly-focused on punishment, which is a rather ineffective way to secure stability or love.
Where is power in this analysis? What role does power play in defining/determining the landscape of justice? Of law?
rickster, my aphorisms are not watertight. They are just some observations and reasoning I have exercised. It would be interesting to see how power can destroy or, in rare instances, ensure greater justice. Mostly, though, power tends to supplant justice with law.
Right now, in the US, we have Zimmerman getting off for killing some teenager, and a woman getting 20 years for firing a warning shot. I fail to see the justice in the simple comparison I make here.
I think people will pretty much deploy/invent any possible kind of institution to exercise power -- whether it's law or good ol-fashioned street violence. We agree here.
How does the unconscious play in here?
Rickster, good question. I cannot give you a definitive answer. What are your thoughts?
It is not easy to make the unconscious conscious. There are a multitude of techniques for drawing up the unconscious, and for delving. Writers often drink too much. "The Well" is a recurrent metaphor; bringing up a bucket of 'water'. Prayer, meditation, contemplation, being still, certain drugs taken in the right set and setting.
Then, when a bucketful is achieved, anything less than objectivity and weighed subjectivity will bend the content. I am trying to make justice synonymous with clear sight and valuable insight. Justice is vision without prejudice or expectation. A difficult state.
I have noticed in society at large that those who are clearly (to many of us) evil-doers often see themselves as righteous.
Part of being just, I think, is refusing to lie to ourselves.
Please share your thoughts on this with me.
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