I'm Dr. Orion Taban and this is Psychax

Better Living Through Psychology. And

the topic of today's short talk is love

and justice. These are two grand words

that represent two very weighty

concepts. I'm not going to be able to do

justice to both of them in such a short

episode. However, I'm going to be so

bold as to present a few ideas that have

been kicking around in my head lately.

We seem to have two very different

attitudes toward these two concepts. We

seem to want love, demand it even, but

justice, well, maybe for other people,

but not so much for ourselves. Many

people explicitly believe that only God

can judge them in the sense that they

believe that no one has the right to put

him or herself above another in the act

of judgment. All humans are created

equal after all. So they say. Therefore,

human judgment is a kind of arrogant

usurpation of God's place which belief

gives rise to all kinds of contempt for

earthly institutions.

And I can see where these people are

coming from. Earthly institutions have a

long history of abusing the power

entrusted to them to execute justice.

And justice absolutely in its highest

sense can be understood as coming from

God. However, the exact same things

could be said about love. Love

absolutely in its highest sense can be

understood as coming from God. and many

abuses have been perpetuated in its

name. My point is that the common

objections against justice aren't unique

to that idea. They can be applied to

pretty much any and every moral good.

But this collectively puts us in a very

strange position. We refuse to be judged

by people especially because judgment so

often comes with consequences or even

punishments that are experienced as

painful. But we expect love from people.

That is we expect people to be divine in

their capacity to love but not in their

capacity to judge which is very

peculiar. We are collectively saying I

want the good stuff now and I'll take

the bad stuff in the next life if there

is one. And in any case, I'll be banking

on God being a merciful distributor of

justice. Now, this is very interesting

for several reasons. In the first place,

when people begin to love, to truly and

deeply love, we often say that they

become increasingly divine.

It's as if by channeling more of this

divine quality, they become more divine

themselves. So why wouldn't the same be

true of justice, which even the

naysayers contend is a divine attribute?

In fact, that's pretty much their entire

argument for rejecting its earthly

manifestation.

When people begin to judge correctly, to

truthfully and accurately and

dispassionately judge,

I believe that they can also become more

divine. God is multifaceted.

So there is more than one way to

approach the higher power. He's not just

one good quality. He is many good

qualities. And none of the many good

qualities that he is requires

modification.

What does that mean? Well, the justice

I'm talking about here is not social

justice. How could it be? Justice is

good enough as it is. It is not improved

with the modifier. The highest goods are

always words that are diminished through

modification. like love. How would you

feel if you asked your partner, "Hey, do

you love me?" And he or she responded,

"Actually, I'll do you one better. I

love you socially. I have social love

for you."

Would you consider that an improvement

over he or she saying, "I love you." I

think you would be hardpressed to find

someone who would agree. By the same

token, social justice is not an

improvement on justice. Like social love

is a denigration of love. Social justice

is a denigration of justice. And it's a

denigration because it's an attempt to

adulterate justice with a kind of

misguided, limpisted kind of love. It is

justice to a point which of course is

not justice. especially if that point

can be breached so frequently and with

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We don't like to admit this, but it is

possible for two goods like love and

justice to come into conflict with each

other. This actually happens all the

time and it is the crux of every great

moral dilemma from the Bhagavad Gita and

the Greek tragedies through to the

modern day. Justice is essentially based

on values and the laws from which they

are derived. It presumes that everyone

from the meanest beggar to the highest

king must surrender to them without

exception. On the other hand, love, at

least as most people understand it,

basically argues that there are

extenduating circumstances.

Let us be merciful. Let us bend the

rule. Let us forego the application of

this consequence. Hasn't this individual

suffered enough? Have pity and soften

your heart.

And this is why love will kind of always

be something of a rebellious antisocial

force. Love has contempt for rules and

order. It will not only love where it is

allowed. It will not only love where it

is permitted. Love is the spontaneous

force of union and so cannot be

constrained by laws. Love is chaotic and

anti-establishmentarianism.

Now, we could make the argument that

love is a kind of necessary chaos that

prevents our institutions from becoming

too rigid or oified.

But we have to make peace with the

understanding that love essentially

seeks exception from established law. I

mean, that's what made the teachings of

Jesus so radical. No longer should we

take an eye for an eye, but endeavor to

turn the other cheek.

And this conflict is amplified when we

understand that love is for individuals

while justice is for societies.

It is very very hard to hold people

accountable to certain laws if you

prioritize love over justice.

Love will always put the individual

above the society. It will ask society

to make the exception, not the

individual.

But it's justice that keeps societies

together. And as long as the individual

needs society, the individual is

actually threatened, albeit indirectly,

by being prioritized over and above

society.

This is why Socrates drank the hemlock.

He understood that the abuse of power in

his particular case was less important

than the individual's surrender to law

in general. His followers who loved him

urged him to escape his punishment with

many reasonable persuasive arguments.

However, escape would undermine society,

the rule of law. And it may well be that

the average Athenian needed Athens more

than the average Athenian needed

Socrates.

This is an uncomfortable attitude for

the modern individual which is why the

west is falling apart. We have fallen

into the collective delusion that the

individual or more precisely certain

individuals who are primarily defined by

their demographic characteristics should

come before the law.

that love that seeks exception should

trump justice which is universal.

If you recall this was functionally the

defense for monarchy for hundreds of

years. This is why the Magna Carta was

so important. It was the reemergence of

the social ideal that no individual, not

even a royal, not even a king, is above

the law, is above justice. And the work

of the last millennia has been to

realize that ideal.

However, the last few decades have

significantly undermined that progress.

Now we have multiple cast systems.

Elites who like royals are above the

law. protected identity categories which

are kind of beneath it and everyone

else. You see this very obviously in the

Bay Area. There is a growing underclass

of society that is functionally exempt

from all laws. Many people believe that

applying justice to these people would

simply be a form of cruelty. So we'll

let love win functionally allow them to

do whatever they want without

consequences. And let me tell you,

that's not loving it. It's also not

helping them. And it's certainly not

good for society as a whole. It is the

result of a mushyheaded, uncritical

perversion of love that would rather

society fall apart,

which will ultimately endanger every

individual they're attempting to

protect, then hold people accountable

for their actions.

It is completely destroyed with even a

little rational thinking.

If it's possible to approach godliness

with respect to our ability to love one

another, which no one seems to have a

problem with, then why wouldn't it be

possible to approach godliness in our

capacity to implement justice?

After all, justice is also an attribute

of the divine. In my opinion, we do not

need a modified justice like social

justice. We need better execution of

justice. And what justice essentially is

and has always been is equal treatment

under law. Equal treatment. The show has

it wrong. It's not love that's blind.

It's justice.

Justice doesn't see your class or your

race or your gender or your

circumstances. It is the impartial and

dispassionate administration of order.

And while you could possibly argue that

the social justice movement is a

reaction against an oppressive or

corrupt form of justice in the past

which inspired a kind of love to emerge

to disrupt this order with its chaos, I

think we can safely say that the

pendulum has swung too far in the other

direction and we will soon be entering

into a corrective period.

What do you think? Does this fit with

your own experience? Let me know in the

comments below. And please send this

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Starry Night, my first novel that

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