As the transformation of America continues, it’s important
to remember that is not and never has been a matter of transforming businesses
or corporations. It’s about the attitudes, the way that we view once solid
institutions. We’ve seen it in science, as proof and evidence has been replaced
for many in the public sphere by “consensus,” as though something which is not
a fact will suddenly become a fact if agreed upon by enough people. We’ve seen
it in dependency, where once generational reliance on government and the work
of others was seen shameful, it is more and more regarded as an “entitlement.”
And we see it in law, as the impending Grand Jury verdict in Ferguson,
Missouri, makes painfully clear.
There was a time, though the exact measure past, when
justice was considered a process. Aside from those most directly involved, it
was not a matter of win or lose, but of fact and evidence. Justice was a
process involving investigation, determination, assessment. Objective reason
was supposed to rule the day, not the passion of the attorneys, nor the station
of the defendant. Justice was not only to be “color blind,” but totally blind.
I’ll be the first to admit, the process generally fell short
of the ideal. Such can hardly be helped in any system born of man. I would go
so far as to say that is really the point, that the only way people can hope to
achieve excellence is to aim for a standard far above what they can reach, and
just keep reaching. We never make it to perfection, but through striving toward
it, we get closer. It is a most noble failure.
And one we seem to have lost the will to continue.
No longer has a process, like so much in our lives, justice
been reduced to the rank of “commodity.” Where justice can be found at all, or
so it seems, the supply is limited. For one to receive, another must be denied,
each according to stature, or lack thereof. Has your life been difficult? You
deserve more. Not so much? Less for you? Minorities, more. Majorities, less.
Women more, men less, Muslims more, atheists more, Christians… I think we’re
fresh out.
And thus the road leads to Ferguson, Missouri, where fact
and evidence have been dispensed with months ago. It’s all about the outcome
now, and perhaps not even then. Out of state protestors are in town, vowing to
protest regardless of the outcome. A pair of men was arrested for attempting to
buy explosives, supposedly in case the Grand Jury did not indict. All in the
name of justice. Outcome based justice, with guns to our heads. What we once
decried as “lynching” and “mob violence,” we now support, nay demand, from our
public officials. And why not? People have come to expect the government to
divide everything else up without regard to effort of merit. Why should “justice”
be any different?
The verdict is expected soon. Far more than the guilty have
reason to fear.
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