“THE SEARCH FOR (SOCIAL) JUSTICE” by Rita Hillmann Olson
Social Justice dictates that human participants in society should be equal. But equal in what? Who decides how to measure equality? The history of Social Justice began around 1840 as a Catholic term for the call to all people to be morally good toward others. Individuals, acting within families and communities, were to voluntarily organize to address society’s needs. The organizations made up of those morally just individuals would advance social justice. Individuals and their associations, deciding for themselves how they can best serve society will perform better, achieve greater self-satisfaction, and behave more compassionately toward others. This is “classical” Social Justice—a bottom-up, decentralized model for social interaction. As society moved into the Information Age, Social Justice took on a whole new meaning and began to focus on equalizing the outcome of people’s efforts. This new idea holds that organizations, if properly established and regulated, can achieve that equality of outcome. It also holds that social disadvantages exist because groups of people are victims of other groups’ privileges. Desired changes in people’s behavior and circumstances can be achieved by establishing policies targeted at their specific group. Government and institutions determine what are “just” outcomes. As more power is given to the government arbiters, individuals’ diversity of natural ability and skills is increasingly suppressed. The result is forced conformity. This is “progressive” Social Justice—a top-down, centralized theory of interacting with others....
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