What Is ‘Social Justice’ Anyway?

Pajamas Media ^ | October 22 | Herbert London

[AJKauf]

During the recent Jewish holidays I heard one rabbi after another speak of “social justice.” Uttered with remarkable sincerity, this expression and its meaning elude me. I recognize justice as the adjudication of competing positions in a court of law and in accordance with the Constitution and its precedents. But what is social justice?

I’m not naïve. From Sharpton to Wright, social justice has come to mean redressing the wrongs of the past in the form of government benefits or reparations. The expression has a hint of retribution as in “you owe us.” In actuality, the words haven’t any real meaning. There are always those who grieve, and as long as the government attempts to satisfy those with a gripe, the plaintive cry for social justice will have irresistible appeal.

Justice is rarely social unless, of course, it is categorical as was the case with the Holocaust. In most instances justice is personal, e.g., seeking retribution for a contractual violation. Even if one were to attempt to redress the evil of slavery, how would one do so? Not every black person in the United States is a child of slavery. Moreover, people do not live in slavery — here at any rate — and race is not a barrier to success as President Obama and a host of corporate leaders demonstrate....

[Tarpon]

Yep, you are right, and Carter installed Mugabe.

[fortunecookie]

During the recent Jewish holidays I heard one rabbi after another speak of “social justice.”

Popular in Catholic circles, too. In my opinion, it seems it's something we are all already doing, or should be - giving to the poor, treating workers fairly, etc, with a 'modern', 'new' left leaning twist to more resemble socialism than altruism or charity. In recent decades (for Catholics, think Liberation Theology popularized during the Carter era) hijacked by the left to be more like socialism/communism than anything else. I don't know if the Rabbis in question leaned left, but that would be something to consider.

[IrishPennant]

They want social justice (They being Sharpton and Jesse), give them a history book. If we are talking reparations for slavery, the African blacks that were sold by African blacks and brought here were far better off then the ones sold within country and within other continents of this globe.

LBJ let all of this happen when he opened the one war front we could never win...forget Vietnam...forget Afghanistan...the only war we can never win is the War On Poverty because we have been told we need to feel guilty. I DO NOT feel guilty because of something that happened a long, long. long. long. time ago.

I am not a racist but something I read the other day, just a few words, made me laugh and wonder at the same time...a comment made on a news website..."We should have just picked our own cotton".

[Gunner9mm]

Read Thomas Sowell “The Quest for Cosmic Justice”. He addressed this 10 years ago.

[DMZFrank]

Social Justice is Marxist Legal Theory