Oldnewlands #14
On Justice
"Whatever needs to be maintained through force is doomed"
- Henry Miller
Something Old
In Plato’s Republic, Socrates asks several different characters to define the concept of Justice, as it was commonly perceived to be one of the four cardinal virtues a good person’s soul should possess, and the one dealing with social life. While Plato’s dialogues are works of fiction, they do reflect many of the views held by Athenians at the peak of their polis’s power in the mid-to-late-5th century BCE.
After the Persian invasion of Greece just before Athens’ golden age, Athens formed the Delian League — a Greek alliance aimed at facing the Persians again should they return. As peace became the norm for some decades, Athens, led by generals who wished to give Athenians a good quality of life, began to enrich it by dipping into the shared treasury of the league, and then threaten other league members who voiced concerns over this unjust behavior.
By the end of the 5th century BCE, Athens fell from grace after a series of bitter conflicts with Sparta and other Greek poleis, and a series of coups within it that saw increasingly more brutal and administratively inept rulers take power over the city.
It seems that Thrasymachus’ view in Republic, that “Justice is the advantage of the stronger”, was prevalent at the time among Athenians of the ruling class. Thrasymachus was a greedy sophist who echoed to the rich would-be rulers of Athens their own dark desires for power, money, and honor, and he did so for money. He was an ancient Andrew Tate, if you like…
Athens’ golden age came at the expense of other Greek cities. Inside Athens life was great, if you didn’t look outside long enough to induce paranoia in yourself, which is the Curse of the Tyrant.
Something New
Much water has flowed into and evaporated from the poorly mistreated, nearly-desiccated Urmia Lake since the fall of Athens.
On February 1st, 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran (a.k.a Persia) with a plan to capitalize on the recent overthrow of the oppressive Shah’s regime. Led by religious zeal and ambitious visions of Shi’ite dominance over the world, he established a regime which was never meant to benefit Iranians who do not share his phantasmagorical worldview.
For decades, the Iranian people have been forced through policy and violence to be servants to the extreme ideology of the Islamic Republic of Iran. For decades, under Khomeini and Khamenei, the Iranian people have been oppressed under the heavy boot of a paramilitary force stronger than the Iranian military itself (think about it!) — the IRGC.
Iranians want their freedom now, and they have a chance of getting it because their oppressors have never been or seemed weaker than after Operation Rising Lion (I do love the symbolism of that name both for Jews and freedom-loving Iranians). And I hope the IRI doesn’t get to celebrate its 47th birthday.
Something Else
Justice is an aspect of The Good, which itself is The Fitting. Justice cannot be injected into a society — not through violence, not through law, and not through religion. Justice is the radiance that emanates from a healthy society made up of individuals who wish to live well, which is why it is so important that a nation holds this truth to be self-evident.
I am not a hippie. Israel and the U.S. are far from being perfect, and far too many of us still view our lives as a competition for happiness, which brings some of humanity’s darker sides out of us. But at least our nations have, as part of their self-stated raison d’être, the goal of allowing their citizens to live well. It is up to us, of course, to make sure that our “leaders” serve us well.
By the way, did you know I made about 100 podcast episodes focused on Living Well? You can find them on Substack, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or other platforms.