What Does It Take For Everyone To Be Just?

I just saw a young man speeding off in his car and a young woman, futilely chasing after it, screaming, "It's all I have.  I've got nothing!"  Why are human beings so cruel to each other?  Why do we think we have the right to ignore the clear pain of another person?

Of course, the young man felt like it was his right to leave with everything the homeless woman had.  Perhaps she had done something to him.  Whatever it was, is the theft of her bedding and belongings on this cold fall day worth the "crime" she had committed?  Of course, the local police find it easy to tear up the homeless folks' bedding and tents, leaving them with nothing to sleep with.  The local gangs attack other gangs because of an insult enacted a year ago.  A nation kills innocent civilians because of the supposed crime of their leaders.

This is all based in the human brain.  We all have mirror neurons, which cause us to identify with other people.  But we also have a way to block mirror neurons, to make some kinds of people those we refuse identity with, so we can actually treat them as less than human.  But if we refuse to identify with those of the opposite sex, those we consider "criminals", another group, another nation, then we can easily justify inhuman actions against them.

How, then, can we stop this?  If this is a natural process, what must be done to see others, ALL others as human beings?  How can it actually be morally possible to treat our neighbor as ourselves?  Are we simply not built for it, even as we all recognize how necessary it is?

Is there a social response that would help us all treat each other fairly?  Jails and prisons clearly don't work-- in fact, in some ways, they only increase the separation between humans allowing us such dehumanizing terms as "inmate" or "felon".  Can we put social pressure on each other to be fair to all people?  Can we train all children in school how to resolve conflict in peaceful ways that is fair to all sides?  If so, would it do any good, considering that our human makeup demands unfairness at times?

Is there a medical solution? What about hormone therapy?  Those with high testosterone rates often demand more respect and react more harshly than those who do not have such high rates.  But is demanding such a procedure acting in fairness to their "normal" state?  Can we demand unfairness to some for a more fair society? And, of course, unfairness is not simply a medical condition.  We are all unfair at times, especially when excessively stressed.  We are occasionally unfair to our children, to our employees, to our students; and conversely, we are occasionally unfair to our parents, employers and teachers, by applying to them unjust motives that may or may not be true.

Is the best we can do to make an ideal of fairness, of equality?  To apply objectivity and lack of judgment as a universal standard, not just a standard of courts and journalism.  And then, perhaps we can train and model the art of apologizing when we are wrong, because we all make mistakes.  If we admit our unfairnesses, and do what we can to not repeat the wrongs, can we get closer to a society that sees fairness as a true, practical standard?

Can War Be Moral?

War is an armed conflict between groups, often nations.  Every war has been justified, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for bad.  Of course, war is justified by those who participate and perpetuate it, but often war is claimed right by those outside of the conflict.

But if we looked at the true cost of war, and the outcome, could war ever be justified?  Is there ever a war that did not kill children?  Recognizing that children always die in war, although always unintentionally, could we ever justify the death of even a single child?  What about the death of other innocents? What would be worth the cost of a helpless innocent?  A political ideology?  An economic system?  The comfort of an entire nation?  Once we have agreed upon this cost, then perhaps we would see that we are still making the demands of the ancient King of Crete, who requested Athenian youth for the sake of peace.

There is one thing that might be worth the death of a child and this is the deaths of many others.  In order to save the lives of many, we might allow the death of an innocent.  So that thousands of lives might be saved, we might sacrifice one baby to the flames.  But would we sacrifice that child if there was only the threat of thousands killed, but we didn't know if that threat was carried out?  Would we sacrifice that child to get revenge on thousands that have already been killed-- is that worth it?  

However modern warfare takes place in occupied cities, with missile attacks.  So civilian deaths are not counted on our fingers, but in the thousands-- sometimes the hundred thousands.  What is worth such a cost?  The death of millions?  Perhaps.  But an ideology?  A racial hatred?  To alleviate a nation's anxiety? Economic comfort?  To save the lives of hundreds?  What is worth the lives of thousands of non-combatants?  Of people dying because other people of other nations make the decision to kill?

Is war the natural order of things?  If so, should it be?