| It seems like love and justice don’t have much in common. Love belongs to the personal and emotional realm while justice belongs to the social and public realm.
Love is associated with friendship, desire and admiration, while justice pertains to honesty, fairness, integrity and loyalty.
But nevertheless, love and justice complement one another and serve the same purposes at the personal and social levels: We long for love in our personal lives and for justice in our social lives.
Love is a condition for justice. A person can behave justly towards another, but does not have to love him. And when a person loves another, he will certainly behave justly towards him.
There are many unjust situations in the world. For example, the socioeconomic situation. Very few people in the world have wealth, education and power in society. There is a large gap that is unjust. The only way to solve the problem is to distribute the surpluses of the wealthy among the poor. This way can be obtained through love, friendship and mercy. But if there laws dealing with the advancement of social justice as social and economic rights are passed, it’s hard to believe that the situation will chance.
At the personal level, love develops before justice. It begins with the initial bond be the infant and his mother– the infant’s dependent emotion on his mother and the mother’s sense of responsibility and care towards the infant. When we grow up, these two relationships guide us on the road to love. A relationship of dependency on a person and, simultaneously, concern for him.
Conversely, the sensation of justice develops at a later age, at around four years of age, and is dependent on social processes. As we develop our reasoning and our ability to judge social events in moral terms, we become more and more aware of the significance of the sensation feeling of justice. For example, this can be seen and understood in the behavior of two brothers who tell their parents, “It’s unjust for him to get a present and me not to get one...” . At that moment the children are already aware of the existence of justice, even without an in-depth understanding of its significance.
In the social world we use laws and norms that cover and conceal the love that is present within us. These laws guide us to behave like “robots” and nullify our feelings for others. We behave justly, but not as lovers.
If we love our fellow man, we won’t need laws, armies and prisons. Justice will come and survive in the heart of each and every one of us.
Love is the guiding force behind actions. Love can cure the sick, prevent wars and conflicts and create security, faith and mutual acceptance.
When we love one another, our work ethic will also be assessed differently and will receive a different meaning. We won’t be assessed solely by our output, money or status, but also by the improvement in our social relationships and our interpersonal relations.
Loving others will change the priorities in the world, with social issues such as care of children, the elderly and the disabled becoming the top priorities.
So how will we create a world where love is the main value and emotion?
- First we must understand and recognize the fact that our existence is dependent on others. We need food that others grow for us and homes that others build for us, etc.
- We must understand that all of mankind is interconnected and interdependent. Houses, smiles, tears, relationships and thoughts, and much, much more, all continue to develop. This is a single living system that never stops.
- All of mankind is linked by a common denominator. Despite the laws and norms that very from one society to the next, we all strive to attain happiness. An in order to attain happiness we need love.
- We must recognize the need to give and receive attention. We need others to love and respect us.
- It is important to understand that thoughts and feelings can also exist. When we communication with one another we convey meanings and feelings. The world is not merely material. There is a lot of inner happiness and beauty that it is important for us to address.
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The Road to Happiness:
Love is the root, and justice is the outcome. Therefore it is important to cultivate and study love, and to bestow love on others.
And then justice and happiness will arrive as well.
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