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Printer-Friendly ModeVengeance finds place in human society through pursuit of justice
June 8, 2009 —
Human beings are a strange type of animal, and I think it is absolutely appropriate to refer to my race (the human race, that is) as animals. Certainly, I’m not suggesting there is no difference between the two.
We communicate with esoteric language, sharing ideas about things only imagined and perhaps never experienced with any sense apart from imagination. In short, we think at a different level than other creatures and have constructed an incredibly complicated society to ensure we force ourselves to use every last drop of our capacity for thought.
What I mean to say when I call humans animals is that there is a fundamental similarity (besides life) between the two that no amount of civilization has been able to erase. Like animals, we are creatures given to emotion — emotion that whatever power governing the universe has implemented into our being to motivate us to act and survive. Even though we may convince ourselves that we construct our world first and foremost with our minds, it appears that our minds are only instruments for satisfying our emotions. In all cultures (that this average undergraduate student knows of) one emotion has rooted itself like a leech. Regardless of how irrational it may be towards meeting our professed deepest desires, people have, as of yet, been unable to abandon their thirst for vengeance.
I recently read a short story entitled “Justicia India,” a piece written in Spanish describing the abuse of a group of indigenous South Americans by a pair of Spaniards. Greed is undeniably the cause of this initial offense, but that is very much a separate problem. The reaction of the aboriginals offers the title of the story and is the focus of this column. After having a horse stolen, a hut burned (accidentally, when a torch was thrown at a face and missed wide) and some verbal abuse thrown their way, the natives stoned the two Spaniards nearly to death, inserted hundred of cacti spines into their skin, scalped them, had the children pour alcohol on their skinned craniums, cut out their tongues and poked their eyes out with hot pokers. Following that, they asked for forgiveness by drawing a cross in the ground and saying a few Hail Mary’s before they hit the sack. If you have a heart and haven’t been too brutalized by video games, the media or the real world, you are probably a little disturbed by the events just described and may have even passed judgment on those barbarians. But before you do, consider the corresponding rituals that are present in our own culture. First consider the title of the story, which isn’t hard to translate. It isn’t “Indian Torture,” “Indian Punishment” or “Indian Vengeance.” It’s “Indian Justice.” If you asked yourself where this thirst for vengeance that I claimed existed was present in society, you need look no further than the tall, plain lady with the sword and the scale that oversees a large percentage of government buildings.
Were I speaking live, volleys of fresh produce would be hurdled my way by the masses screaming, “What would society be without justice?!” I would answer that society and life would be much less painful for everyone. Apart from making us feel better knowing others have suffered as much as we have, our much-cherished principles of justice do not serve to better society — to make it more functional. It remains a keystone value in our cultures because we give ourselves to destructive emotion. We are hypocrites claiming to value forgiveness and compassion but incapable of giving them. We have applauded for years as very good-looking models with sashes and tiaras profess their wishes for world peace and love, and I wonder if the crowd would also cheer if Miss World said, “I would like to see all the criminals in the world suffer the pain they have caused others, and since they are agitators, a little bit more.” It seems to me that in that situation, removed from the raw emotion of offense, Miss World would hear crickets, perhaps even some profane remarks of exasperation.
That’s what justice, as it exists in our cultures today, achieves: it amplifies suffering. What nobody acknowledges about the scale in that lady’s hand is that in order to balance it, it’s only possible to add weight to one side or the other. As we keep trying to balance the scale, it has become too heavy for society to hold up. Equality should not be cherished when it is applied to suffering. We ought to be asking ourselves how to reduce suffering, not balance it. And we do, we just forget at the most important time: when we are suffering.