Ideas 2: Justice

Some months ago, I set up as a top priority in my life to learn to be objective and always consider the big picture,  instead of my personal choices or preferences.

The bigger picture being, the long-term conservation, survival and well being of every person on this planet, the planet itself and other living beings on it.

And for that, I had some choices to make, decisions to take.

1: understanding: myself, other people, their motives, and objectives.

2: detachment, let go of things and people that weight me down or put obstacles in my way. Especially those people who say “no, that won’t happen/can’t be done”

Sacrifices I needed to make, needed to sacrifice my customs, traditions, beliefs, and stop focusing on my own short-term benefit and (try to) start caring about others as well, or at least being conscious when I don’t and thinking why.

JUSTICE

I often state that there are no bad people in this world, we are all good-natured and the reason why some people kill, rape, steal and are corrupted is because of the environment around them and the ideas that have been forced into them. (this automatically takes all the guilt away from the individual and places it in an abstract environment, thus making it harder to find someone to blame for and making it easier to find a solution to those problems) [1]

Adding that the penal and legal system are obsolete, and the eye for an eye concept of revenge or justice are outdated. The only reason why we keep supporting them is that some people profit from them.

Why do I state that? Because crimes keep happening.

And I am of the idea that when there’s a problem, the solution is fixing the problem so it doesn’t happen again, and not just patching it up and seeing how long it can last.

And punishing a single individual or group of individuals is patching up the system and perpetuating the problem, instead of solving it.

So by not providing the people with the basic needs (food, housing, health) and providing them instead with factors that deters their mental and physical well being  (stress, drugs, pressure, competition) the government has forced them to commit crimes, and then found a way of forcing them into the most violent environment possible (prisons) to make sure the stay violent and commit crimes again when they get out, while at the same time making sure that other people keep committing the same crimes after them.

So when I talk about “justice” and laws with some people, the usually propose this scenario to me:

“what if someone tortures you, rapes and kills your family and friends and people you care about, wouldn’t you want some kind of revenge, justice, compensation, or them to be punished by the law?”

My quick answer is always: “of course not, because that wouldn’t solve anything, nor make me feel better, yes It may inflate my ego for a few days but I can do that in other ways (kissing the mirror, adding some cute hearts on my pictures, writing a blog), what’s done is done, now we have to make sure it doesn’t happen again!”

I don’t mean the same person doesn’t commit any more crimes, but that no other person commits any crimes.

More than 90% of crimes are related to property, solve the scarcity and inequality problems, take private property out of the equation, give people what they need and what they want and they won’t have to steal it. Then we get the violent crimes (rape, murder) which can be easily solved as well. We weren’t born yesterday, we have a history of thousands of years to learn from and we’ve spent centuries studying society and human behavior, we have thousands of sociologists, psychologists, psychiatrists and we have the resources needed to change things.

And then I need to make sure I actually believe what I say.

On the pro side: the system is not working, because crimes keep happening, so we gotta do something for them not to happen again.

On the con side: I was also raised to believe in “justice” that if someone does something bad they have to be punished. So if you want to swim against the current, you’re gonna have to learn to swim faster or better than the other fishes, otherwise, you’ll just get dragged along by the current.

How to swim a bit faster and get the advantage?

By proposing something better, no one likes when someone comes along saying “this is wrong, this is not working” while at the same time not offering any solution.

By matching data and evidence and always providing evidence of what you are saying.

By trying to see the bigger picture and understanding that what’s good for you now may not be good for the majority in the long run.

By educating yourself, read, learn, experiment, test things out, and make sure you know what you’re talking about and more importantly, that you know how to explain it in a simple way that everyone can understand and relate to.

By being concise and placing yourself at the same level or even lower than the people you talk to/write to (I’m haven’t mastered that one yet) make them see you are same as them in the sense that you want to best possible outcome with the fewer negative consequences as possible.

By being a skeptic, always asking *why* and demanding proof of what is being said or proposed.

By working together. Competition doesn’t bring prosperity, cooperation does.

By being kind and compassionate, compassion is the key, the key to understanding each other and to succeed in finding common ground.

I myself fail on many of those points often, and I’m not nearly compassionate enough, but I do sincerely want to make things better and believe we can all reach a consensus on the one to stand together.