On justice
I have been struck with the meaning of justice, and its requirement in the matters of public, and society. Further, its removal from the matters of the Law, in this written with a capital L, for it is an entity of its own separation.
I have come to believe that law does not spring from morals, but is rather, the still water at the base of a hill, from which moral wisdom is the spring, and justice, is the stream therein between. Following this analogy, it is the stream, justice, which has in it life, movement, change and the allowance of something new. Like a steam, justice will find a way to act out in a way natural to it. Justice is here, born from morals and in its descent, not its fruition, becomes the stagnated law which many applaud as its culminated perfection; its distilled purity.
This all to say: Justice is not law, nor simply the enforcement of what is prohibited, and further is not the vengeance that law takes upon those that commit these prohibited actions in discordance with the law. Justice is what is good for the public, it is public service, it is the keeping of peace through the efforts of both the people, policies, and guardians of the society. We do ourselves a disservice, when we believe it is only the enforcers of law that do perform justice, when it is rarely the case- It is in fact, the citizen, who picks up a piece of trash, helps an elder cross a road, it is the citizen who chooses the local shop in place of the larger corporation.
Law is the rule of what not to do, Justice, is what a people, decide is the moral thing to do, and it is not written, it is not said, it is not anywhere mentioned, but it is in the minds and souls of every person in the society, it is in the choices made, in the votes cast, and in the works performed by the society, the citizen, the human. Do not, either, believe it to be written in stone, or paved in mud, Justice is a living thing, as changing and lively as a stream and will change each and every day. Set not your expectation of justice to what is law, for laws and morals are quite different, and will, at times interrupt one another. Justice is what is good, it is the actions taken to build towards the good of the society, it is the beginning, the path and the goal for every person- the variability, is whose good they have in mind.
The true good, the everlasting good, is the good of the people, of society for you only live today. What good is your present in the face of fifty years, a hundred, a thousand? We as mortals live in the present, but society lives on, your people live on, if not them, then the story of your people will extend beyond them, and though they may not speak of your deeds, they will speak of the good nature of the people, with which, you participated.
Justice is the second virtue in the stoic philosophy, and I believe it to be the path to the two last: temperance, and courage, and springs out of, the first, Wisdom. without all, man cannot be truly good, without all, you cannot have the other in fullest effect.
