Loveless Justice

Justice For The Sake Of It

Accountability. Corruption. Words that had become meaningless in our discourse, the prevalence of the latter simply ingrained in our identity. Was it misfortune or our own failing? It never really mattered, because this is how things have always been. Blame the institutions, blame the people occupying the corridors of power, blame the people who put them there, blame yourself, but in the end, we’ve all known that it doesn’t really matter. A sense of resigned acceptance reigns over us. And then suddenly, comes an event that offers a new beginning, a different system beckoning beyond the horizon. An era of accountability, led by a reformed and reinvigorated judiciary. For the hopeful, this is the interpretation that is to be drawn from this rather bold ruling.

But beyond a buoyed sense of hope, is there really a rationale behind this optimism?

And if we finally have decided to deal with the perennial issue of corruption substantively, is this the most effective way? The questions needs to be answered regardless of political allegiances and vendettas. Cleaning up the top might give us a sense of relief and hope, but that’s all it is, a fleeting moment that will soon be subsumed by our resigned acceptance of the status quo. Our mistake lies in this false anticipation of a black swan event – a rare, unlikely but dramatic event – that will simply wash away our collective sins and failures. This delusional wait for a silver bullet is what stifles any sense of ownership of the problem and suffocates our ability to reform from the bottom. We are always more than content to wait for a messiah, one we can simply rally behind and champion without having to much else. That’s how many see this verdict, as an occurrence to which people can simply hook their hopes and move along as passive observers. Our zeal and jazbaat , whether for or against any political development, make us short-sighted and protect the system from truly being challenged.

Source: Global View Capital
http://gvcmanagement.com/investment-programs.html In the days of the SC verdict, there was another case reaching its conclusion at the LHC, one that had far more direct implications on the accountability and justice that the average citizen desires. Khadija Siddique fought through the perverted legal system, to get the man who stabbed her 23 times in broad daylight convicted. The horrifying details of the case make it a no-brainer, but power and influence can distort any situation. How would less financial corruption at the top have protected this girl from the character assassination attempts she survived during trial? It is cases like hers that are the true markers of how much accountability there is in our system and society, and how much we really care about justice for others.

If the everyday exertion of power by those who have it, at all levels, is not considered a worthy cause to fight for, then it’s not really accountability we’re after; rather, we seek political scapegoats that we can imagine as vessels of everything evil that plagues us. If they go, we believe, the troubles will go with them, leaving us devoid of any responsibility to be agents of change.

But to fight this issue, the cleanup must come from the bottom, with justice fighting for the common citizens, not just occasionally and selectively dispensed when deemed appropriate.

 

Source: CitizenMetz

https://citizenmetz.com/tag/elinor-ostrom/ The political horizon has always been unpredictable; too many power brokers, too many shifting tides, all underlined with that sense of familiar uncertainty. But at the end of the day, these events are confined within the space of the ruling elite and do little to challenge the embeddedness of corruption in our society. Corruption and the lack of accountability are not issues that are restricted to a few politicians; over time, they have become institutionalized and ossified within the system. Hedging hopes on any institution is not only futile but dangerous; at the end of the day, they are all part of the ruling elite that have created a self-serving system. Progress will only ensue when expecting benevolence from the top is replaced with an active sense of civic duty that culminates in community level action. It is people like Khadija Siddique, and her legal team, that are the bastions of justice and the vessels of hope behind whom we can coordinate our efforts. But until we realize that justice is much more than a single ruling and requires a collective awakening, there’s a high chance that this new wave of accountability will simply be remembered in history as just another power play between the ruling elite, leaving the masses with nothing more than a reaffirmed resigned acceptance. Justice for the sake of justice is always something less than justice; as Cornel West says, true

“Justice is what love looks like in public.”