"Justice"

Throughout history, many people have had many different views towards justice, but where do these views of justice come from? The most obvious answer would be from the people with power, but who determines who has the power? The best answer would be the victor. The victor is most often depicted as the winner of a war. This war can be fought in two different ways, through force or diplomacy. The former can be viewed as the barbaric way of convincing others of your point while the latter is the one used by intellectuals.

Convincing others using force is the direct way of making people agree with a point. If there is a disagreement between two parties, destroying the other party will be the fastest way upholding one's ideals. There are many empires who used force to convey their perspective such as the Roman Empire, Assyrian Empire, Persian Empire and many others. When these empires were in power, their idea of the strong prevailing over the weak is justice, and therefore, if one was not strong then all they could do is either submit or be destroyed. However, this kind of empires have a tendency to be destroyed by their own values. The Roman empire fell from invasion, the Assyrian empire was overthrown by the Persians, and the Persian empire fell from the Greeks. All these empires fell to the other empires or nations in the same way others fell to theirs. Their method of thinking can be summarized as being strong is right while being weak is wrong.

On the other hand, convincing others through the use of language and diplomacy will be difficult but will, in the end, guarantee a longer existence. The idea of fighting through the use of language has existed for many centuries, but its large scale effects can only be seen in the contemporary world. In order for this way of war to work, both sides must be willing to listen to each other. If one chooses to use language to fight while the other through fist, human nature will have a tendency to fight through violence. The most obvious depiction of fighting through words can best be seen in Athens. They were arguably the first nation to develop justice system based on logic. They listened to reason before administrating punishment. In that specific nation, where being smart prevails over being strong, having intelligence and being able to win arguments is justice. If one was not bright, they will suffer. In the modern world, we still use this system listening to claims and looking at evidence before administering punishment. In this case being smart is right while being ignorant is wrong.


Basically, Justice is a very subjective term that is only determined by who is in power. Whoever is right or wrong will solely depend on what the victor believes. With that being said, what would happen if Germany and its allies won the second world war? Would the people in this era have a significant difference in the idea of justice? Right now there are many wars being fought using language in the U.S. such as the argument of people's sexuality, or the legalization of Marijuana. When the debate ends and a clear victor is decided. The winner's beliefs will be turned to what is right and the opposing side will be wrong.