Justice does not serve humanity

Back in the early days of the Internet, before algos and capital took over, the terrain was raw and full of fantastical corners. On my journey through the land, I came upon someone’s digital grimoire. This artifact talked about how our words have power. There’s magic behind them and how they’re used shapes our world.

It specifically talked about how we have to consider the sounds that show up in our language. Their shared sound gives them the same energy signature. It discussed several sounds with examples but only one was ingrained into my still-developing brain. The “ust” sound like in the words “must”, “lust”, “just” was considered a bad sound. It was categorized as harmful and discouraged from using.

As an adult, I couldn’t uproot this seed and it nagged at the question of how “justice” can be construed as a bad thing. Aren’t we supposed to want justice?

I finally understood the danger of justice as I stood at Freedom Plaza for hours on Nov 4th listening to leaders from all sorts of affinity groups rally the crowd in the name of justice. They used the same language of war as the oppressor and in doing so revealed how the cycle of violence, where the abused becomes the abuser, continues. Justice is the destructive manifestation of rage.

Rage isn’t bad. It’s completely valid and necessary. It’s empowering. It’s an important messenger from our spirit that helps us acknowledge our own humanity. It pushes us to rise up and grasp our personal power, to push back against our own dehumanization. It’s not the rage but what comes after that we need to examine.

Catalyzing rage can take a couple different forms. The one we’re most familiar with is a forceful release towards any object in our way, including people. Because the atmosphere of that anger requires us to see other humans as objects in order to successfully dehumanize them. In order to inflict the same or worse violence on them for justice. We harness the power of our anger to retaliate against our enemy for what they’ve done. We attempt to exercise our power over others to satisfy our need for justice. Demanding justice with this aggressive power rooted in anger can only cause destruction.

What happens when we actually move through this anger completely to the other side? To understand the alternative outcome of rage, we have to look at what’s on the opposite end of the spectrum from justice. The opposite of justice is mercy.

Mercy is a different kind of energy. It’s a soft power that nurtures safety. It heals. The merciful know they have the power to aggress, but they choose to exercise power over self and direct that energy into restraint. Mercy says “I acknowledge your humanity, and I will value it as my own.”

When the genocides come to an end as all things do, one of two things will happen.

The first is the same outcome we’ve seen many times before. A new power takes reign and punishes the old regime in the name of justice. They try to convince themselves and the world they’re the good ones worthy of ruling. But power corrupts absolutely. And we continue living in the same world shaped by a constant fear of punishment. A world that says love and care is conditional.

If we want to rebuild a world free from the violent destruction of justice, we have to start practicing the grace of mercy.

Everyone has to do this. Both parties in any conflict. The oppressor has to show mercy to the oppressed and stop their aggression. The oppressed has to have mercy on their oppressor and not seek justice for the violence they endured.

This has to happen at every scale. Within ourselves, our interpersonal relationships, our communities, our state, our country, across the world.

It won’t be easy. Mercy is arguably harder to practice than seeking justice. It will require all of us to confront our relationship with shame and punishment. If you need help, look to the leaders gentle parenting the next generation of humanity. Look to the abolitionists who are already deep into this work. It will be a long, hard journey, but it is necessary for the sake of this planet and all life that inhabits it.

Stop calling for justice, start practicing mercy.