TIL: That Justice is a Natural Principle

in #til8 years ago

Today I Learned that justice is a natural principle and that's the main reason why so many laws by so many so called "governments" is nothing more than institutionalized injustice (i.e. victimless crimes).

In the words of Lysander Spooner:

"If justice be not a natural principle, it is no principle at all. If it be not a
natural principle, there is no such thing as justice. If it be not a natural
principle, all that men have ever said or written about it, from time
immemorial, has been said and written about that which had no
existence. If it be not a natural principle, all the appeals for justice that
have ever been heard, and all the struggles for justice that have ever been
witnessed, have been appeals and struggles for a mere fantasy, a vagary
of the imagination, and not for a reality.

If justice be not a natural principle, then there is no such thing as
injustice; and all the crimes of which the world has been the scene, have
been no crimes at all; but only simple events, like the falling of the rain,
or the setting of the sun; events of which the victims had no more reason
to complain than they had to complain of the running of the streams, or
the growth of vegetation.

If justice be not a natural principle, governments (so-called) have no
more right or reason to take cognizance of it, or to pretend or profess to
take cognizance of it, than they have to take cognizance, or to pretend or
profess to take cognizance, of any other nonentity; and all their
professions of establishing justice, or of maintaining justice, or of
rewarding justice, are simply the mere gibberish of fools, or the frauds of
imposters.

But if justice be a natural principle, then it is necessarily an immutable
one; and can no more be changed --- by any power inferior to that which
established it --- than can the law of gravitation, the laws of light, the
principles of mathematics, or any other natural law or principle whatever;
and all attempts or assumptions, on the part of any man or body of men
--- whether calling themselves governments, or by any other name ---
to set up their own commands, wills, pleasure, or discretion, in the
place of justice, as a rule of conduct for any human being, are as much
an absurdity, an usurpation, and a tyranny, as would be their attempts to
set up their own commands, wills, pleasure, or discretion in the place of
any and all the physical, mental, and moral laws of the universe."

Natural Law Theory: Crash Course Philosophy

Sort:  

Virtually every act of those who consider themselves government has been another inch of the spring of natural justice further pushed. If history is correct, the spring can't be pushed forever.

If history is correct, the spring can't be pushed forever.

I hope so.

Me too lol. Thank goodness we don't live forever.