My mom was watching this show called 24 and it had this great philosophical lesson. The president of the United States was about to get the world to sign a world wide peace treaty eliminating war on Earth between all nations. But just days before the peace treaty is going to be signed the president of the I.R.K. (a foreign country) is poisoned. His wife is forced to take over the country, but is devastated by her husband's death and wants to find the person who killed him. Later, the President, A.T.U. (anti-terrorist unit) and Jack Bower (protagonist) discover that the Russians were the ones to kill him. Jack's girlfriend discovers this first and is determined to expose the Russians, so the Russians take her out. (Making Jack a VERY ANGRY MAN WITH A GUN).
Jack is determined to do the same thing and expose the Russians so he goes to the president so that he can get permission to interrogate their prisoner for evidence against the Russians.
Instead the President is more interested in peace and decides to lock Jack up in order to keep the peace treaty, knowing that if the new president of the I.R.K. found out she would never sign. Jack is arguing with her and he says: "I want justice" and the president says: "I want peace".
So which is more important? Justice or peace? This question doesn't have to apply exclusively to this show. In general which is more important?
I think they kind of tie in, and you can't have one without the other.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I believe that in the long run they go together. But in the short run they go against each other. Using this example, if the treaty is signed and the Russians go unpunished then it is likely that they will cause a larger war later on. However is you get justice against them it will cause a war at the time. So which is better a definite smaller war now. Or a possible larger war later on.
ReplyDeleteI believe that you can only really have one or the other. Ultimate peace is acquired by nobody committing crimes, but instead working in harmony, and if that is achieved, then justice is not needed. But if you instead turn to justice, then you can continually knock out criminals using justice, until every single criminal is knocked out, and then you achieve peace, and have no need for justice. So, you can sort of have one and sort of have another, or you can have one without needing the other. There really is no way to achieve both ultimate peace and ultimate justice.
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