Is a Human born Just or Unjust?
Why is a person just? Or why is a person unjust?
Just like the “Chicken or the egg” dilemma, I seem to wonder which really came first, justice or Injustice, thus calling it the “Justice or Injustice dilemma”. For I believe, understanding the origin of a phenomenon can help us gain a clear understanding of it’s causalities.
Rather than comprehending this as a universal problem, I’d rather break it down to the doings of humans.
Is a human born just or unjust?
The society or individual experiences we face as we grow can be quickly thought of to answer this. But if we think about our experience of being a part of the society as a whole or an individual so as to speak, again, they could’ve been as easily influenced as we were to them.
Maybe I can give a scenario.
Let us consider two boys, one is just and the other unjust. Both being born in the same house, thus having similar parentage. One boy is just in the eyes of the society he lives in. The other boy is unjust, known for wrongdoings at a young age. The just boy is appreciated and loved by all. While the unjust boy garners opposition from elders but rakes with money he gets by wrongdoings. In a matter of time they get influenced by each other. The unjust boy desires the love his just counterpart attracts, he becomes just. While the boy who was just desired the money and took the unjust boy’s path to gain some quick bucks. Does this mean the unjust boy was actually just? Or the one who was just was unjust all the way, but was blinded by the love and praise he received all along?
Or is it the matter of who changes first that can satisfy the dilemma of whether a human is born just or unjust?
I have a good reason to ask too many questions. Questions are disguised truths that makes our understanding clear. Consider the one below and give it some thought.
What makes a man be just, do good things?
Think..think..,
As long as a person is able to answer this question, I’ve got plenty of room to assume he is not born just.
We are essentially animals. Animals that express love, anger, sympathy, happy, sad, in it’s bare form*. But a moral code prevents us from doing so. Like animals in circus, we are whipped if we exhibit our true nature, but appreciated if things are done as expected by higher authorities.
Justice is nothing more than a mutual covenant that humans have come up with to prevent us from behaving like animals. By that, I mean, prevent us from doing things at will. Justice was needed to bring order to the society. Over the years, they have become rules and we are deemed to abide by them. We almost don’t feel like an animal anymore, being so restricted. So, in the name of religion, country, race, we fight wars. We fight to feel like animals again.
Lastly,
My stand on “Are humans born just or unjust?”
I believe that people are born to live at free will. We cannot be just unless the concept of morals and justice are etched in our DNA, which is not. It is taught and enforced upon us. Ergo, it is impossible¹ to be born just.
If humans were left to live like animals, most of our actions would be unjust. This can also be based on the premise that people do not realize their power at birth. Their power of courage, money, fellow humans or knowledge. The realization of this makes a person remain unjust; back to being a good ol’ animal.
What about the people who are just?
Some might be just for the reputation it brings, which is like nothing less than a thief who steals at night and never gets caught. Some are into Karma and the concept of Heaven and Hell and for ‘all blessings are on one who is pious’. But again, this is being just for one’s own interest (Psychological egoism), or in the interests of the society (does morals and values make any sense without the context of society? I don’t think so).
¹But, what about the people who are just, inside and out?
There were (and are maybe) saints who were just, practiced nothing but good morals and virtues, till their death. I cannot argue they were born unjust. It is possible they had a life changing experience that made them turn into saints. But it is these people who renounce the world (the unjust people) and go into deep meditative states to reach the people of just (the Gods maybe!).
So, I started with the question of whether justice or injustice came into existence first? This sounded like an infinite regress is involved, thus I devised an abstraction of this, applicable to humans, “Are humans born just or unjust?”. I rest my argument with a conclusion that “humans are not born just”! But I cannot rest without a debate, so let me know your thoughts.
*Reminds me of “Today we may be living in high-rise apartments with over-stuffed refrigerators, but our DNA still thinks we are in the savannah.” — Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.
