In reply to R.C.Macaulay's message of Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:16:24 -0600: Hi, [snip] >The biggest problem in the world is jealousy, vanity, lust and greed. Add >drugs to this equation and witness a decay in civilized society. >An attorney friend remarked tha he no longer knew what justice is as a result >of his work in the court system. >I explained the definition of the word "justice" as " love of order, that >which preserves it, we call justice." [snip] A fascist dictatorship preserves order, but I would hardly call it just, therefore, I think your definition is somewhat lacking.
My definition is that a just system is one in which *all* are treated equally before the law. I suspect this doesn't exist anywhere on Earth. This is different BTW from a *fair* society which tries to treat all members equally, and also from a *free* society, which tries to give all members the greatest possible freedom. A fair society would need to restrict the freedoms of some in order to ensure that all get an equal share, while a free society allows some to exploit others resulting in an unequal distribution of wealth. IOW fairness and freedom are usually to a considerable degree exclusive of one another. Fairness is epitomized by pure communism, while freedom is epitomized by pure capitalism. Most societies end up opting for a mixture of the two, with some restrictions on freedom designed to ensure that exploitation is limited to some degree. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk The shrub is a plant.
