Justice, Morals, Plague, Oh My!

In our small group today, we discussed justice and whether justice is impartial. Can we make accommodations for others while being just? Does justice require accommodations to be just? My first answer was that justice cannot make accommodations to be just, and in demanding that justice also be kind that we confused it with fairness or humanity. But then I decided to consult our favorite source, the OED. The OED online lists the meaning of justice as "The quality of being (morally) just or righteous; the principle of just dealing; the exhibition of this quality or principle in action; just conduct; integrity, rectitude."

This definition makes everything more complicated. If justice is what is morally right, then we find ourselves in a quandary: people have many different moral codes and will never agree on a set of universal beliefs. Therefore, no one will ever agree on what constitutes justice and thus it can never exist on a large scale. If this is true, then I’m still unsure about what Camus means by “the garish light of justice – hideous, witless justice” (193). Perhaps, as has been suggested, the plague functions as a great equalizer – and in this sense, does serve justice. By threatening everyone equally, the plague causes everyone to abandon individual perspectives and focus only on survival.

On a completely unrelated note, I thought of a saying on Tuesday when the topic of boredom came up: “Only stupid people are bored. Smart people always find ways to amuse themselves.”