Chapter 16 Part II

Law versus Justice

Link to Part I

“Only if we assume justice must not involve suffering,” Ernst pointed out.

“Why not?” Jude demanded.

“Why not?” echoed Ernst. “Self-preservation is the greatest universal biological imperative and it is from this inherent selfishness that the many desires for justice emerges, both from those seeking justice and defending themselves from it. And even the real reason for justice people are always forever ignoring.”

“The real justice?”

Ernst laughed and waved away Jude’s puzzled expression. “Even so, my dear Jude, we may both heartily agree justice shouldn’t involve suffering, but we still closely associate justice with punishment as a deterrent for criminal activities, don’t we?”

Jude dismissed the notion. “Forgiveness is also important. We cannot always associate justice with suffering.”

He contemplated why he rejected vengeance so strongly. “But vengeance has never disappeared,” he also conceded, knowing too well man still craved for a simple justice. “The American poor, while they borrow the language of liberty and freedom, still think in terms of retaliation and revenge in justice,” he added, thinking of the Baltimore riots. 

“The power of the collective human memory is extremely strong and manifests itself in many ways, even if we pretend otherwise,” Ernst agreed. “Strip away the education and refinements of civilization from a man and what is he left with? Nothing, and these base instincts and passions come through once more.” 

“What do the poor have, which the rest of society does not, to persist with vengeful attitudes, even if they may be wrong?” 

“Should the question be phrased the other way around? What is it the poor of America do not have? What do they share in common with the barbarians of old?” 

Ernst turned from Jude, taking in the handsome houses of Mount Vernon, the stained-glass windows of the brownstone Grace Episcopalian church, built in the fashionable gothic style, and the refined facade of the Harwood mansion. His mystifying smile emerged so Jude knew he was thinking of the answers he wouldn’t tell.  

And Ernst did clasp his hands behind him and leaned against his cane. “When man first settled into the state of civilization, what did the civilized man have which the barbaric tribes did not?”