What is injustice?

Suffering is everywhere. Much is self-created. However, much is also structural, and derives from nature’s cruel hierarchies or from the abuse endemic in human systems. This latter source of suffering is known as injustice.

Thinkers of all ages have tried to identify the causes of injustice. In his Aphorisms of Love and Hate, Nietzsche claims injustice stems not from inherent evil but from a congenital lack of empathy towards those who belong to a different class or group. An inability to comprehend the suffering of the “other” enables us to ignore it. Karl Marx thought injustice comes from a predatory bourgeoisies who use their privilege as property and capital owners to feed off the less fortunate. One recalls William Blake’s aphorism: money is the life-blood of poor families. Hobbes maintained that injustice comes from the ego-centric nature of people themselves. Any form of state, however disgraceful, is preferable to the rule of nature. Perhaps Moses was making a similar point when he presented the ten commandments to the people of Israel.

Religions tend to adopt a contradictory stance towards injustice. Certain priests and hierophants “know which side their bread is buttered on”. Those who dedicate their lives to spiritual pursuits often forfeit their economic independence and place themselves in the hands of overlords. The saints, even if they eat little, still need to eat. Jesus, himself a rebel, inspired a religion that preached submission to feudal lords and the divine right of kings. To this day, the Queen of England remains the head of the Church of England. One wonders how Jesus, a philosopher of love, universal brotherhood, and asceticism, would have felt about having the queen, a symbol of stratification, exclusivity and excess, as his figurehead.

The Buddhists and the Hindus have their own ingenious ways of propping up injustice. Their most dangerous, and by far their most slippery doctrine, is the doctrine of karma. Those who suffer in this life do so because of crimes committed in past lives. The poor deserve to be poor, the miserable their misery. Hence India’s rigid caste system and the notorious “untouchables”.

Some historians take the long-term view that humanity is gradually liberating itself from injustice. Although there are frequent relapses, humanity as a whole is moving towards a fairer, more enlightened future. The average person of today is better off than a hundred years ago. Certain extreme forms of injustice, such as legal slavery – the ability to possess another human being as a piece of property – have mostly disappeared.

This long term-view depends on how you define injustice. If we expand definitions of injustice to include harm to animals and the natural world, then the inverse is true. The destruction of the rainforest, the poisoning of oceans, and industrialised meat production would suggest that injustice increases over time.

Even within the narrow anthropocentric lens, a highly subjective evaluation of quality of life is necessary to assess injustice. Are we really living in a time of plenty? Or is this age of endless entertainment a distraction from the true purposes of existence and therefore a source of suffering? Noting the prevalence of mental illness in the west, many Buddhists think that modern life is not conducive to liberation from suffering. How does one quantify the invisible threads of cultural values that perpetuate injustice? Or the loss of community in atomised societies? Or the prevalence of reality TV shows and competitions, bread and circuses on an unthinkable scale? Can we consider the mechanisms that underpin cultural impoverishment as unjust? Where do they begin and who is responsible for them?

Injustice is everywhere. Perhaps the hardest thing is keeping one’s peace of mind. The stoics would say excitable natures only exacerbate the pains caused by injustice. To calm oneself amid the storm, hope for the best, be ready for the worst; to build a shrine of peace within; these are the tools we need to face injustice. Turning our own minds into sanctuaries of peace can help us negotiate the horrors of existence.


Thomas Helm

Thomas Helm is a writer, journalist, and musician. HIs two poetry pamphlets The Mountain Where Nothing Happens and A Pilgrimage of Donkeys engage with surrealism, absurdism, Buddhism, and alchemy. He founded Mercurius in 2020 and helps edit it.

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