You Owe Me!

It would be nice to remove all injustice in the world. But is all injustice on purpose? We have a word called offence that best describes this concept. Sometimes just by being ourselves we offend others. Some call petty things offenses. Having hurt feelings usually means an injustice occurred. We all have different interests and strengths. There are standard pushers that call certain things sins, syndromes or deficits. But in reality, each person has particular tastes, ambitions and gifts. Most petty offenses are manufactured by our biases and ambitions. Where can we start when it comes to removing injustice from the world?

The part that is most under our control is our own sense of injustice. There are times we should make things right with others when we have unintentionally given offence. Sometimes people are just fishing for it because they want sympathy. If we receive offense, there is also a proper time and place to deal with it. Sometimes we take it for the team and take the higher ground and other times it is necessary to tactfully deal with people and their mouths. Even in wartime we want to use just enough force to bring peace and fairness to a society. At times the damage caused seems unjust but is necessary to eradicate an evil. Our founders felt that death was a small price to pay for freedom. 

But narrow minded people magnify single acts to get others on their bandwagon to discredit those who don't believe in their cause. They ignore the big picture and the real facts. We see this in our sensationalized media toward law enforcement and our military. There are perceived injustices, temporary injustices and outright injustices that are given and received by all of us. These can range from day to day annoyances all the way up to outright unlawful acts.  It is up to us to keep things in perspective and try to understand first before taking action with our words or deeds. That is why studying ethics and structuring our thoughts is important. No one wants to spend their lives pining away about manufactured offences or trying to fix nonexistent ones.  

A person with good character learns to let things go that can’t be helped and to move on with productive things. Just think of how many relationships could be restored if we took time to understand and be effective. What if everyone was thankful for the sacrifices of others? What is keeping this from happening in the world?: Perceived injustices.

This concludes the section on injustice and why we are studying character. A society with good character is the best weapon against injustice. So lets move on and study the soul in more detail. Section six in Nicomachean Ethics.