Justice: What's the right thing to do?

After reading Justice: What's the right thing to do? by Michael J. Sandel, I began to think a lot about the questions that appeared in the text such as "Who deserves what?" and "What do we owe one another?"  Although my first instinct was to state that the people who are selfless are the people who deserve the good in life and we owe it one another to help our community, I found it hard to believe there was only one valid answer.  It's hard because there are so many factors that influence an answer. Every answer is different just as everyone is different, meaning they come from different environments and circumstances that shape them.  After careful thought, I found that the "right" answer to these questions must come from within the person asking.  Like Sandel said, "invite readers to subject their own views about justice to critical examination--to figure out what they think, and why."

Response to Justice and Debt

     When I read the article "Debt" I was outraged by the way that the poorer countries had to not only pay their debts once, but multiple times over and are still considered being in debt. It is not a fair system and it makes me think of how paying for university and graduate school inevitably leads to debt. A related anecdote from "Justice" is that of the bank bailout. The banks used that money to feed their own greed by giving bonuses to the executives. The sad reality is that the money used from taxpayers was used to pay the checks, but would congress ever pass such a law to give people *good free healthcare, or money for Detroit, or for the homeless? On another point from "Justice" after hurricane Charley the people that decided to increase price in the aftermath were taking advantage of people that had just been devastated. Yes, there is a supply and demand under normal circumstances, but in a disaster the goal should be to help as many people as possible, whatever the case may be. People take advantage of others for greed and we need to be aware of it.

Response to Debt and Justice

The reading that I responded to the most was the one concerning debt. The points that Graeber made about the monetary system and the guilt that often comes hand-in-hand with owing someone money made me aware of the unfair practices that powerful people and institutions use to assert control monetarily. The banking system and the economy in the United States are engineered to punish the struggling individual, while the banks and major corporations are bailed out if they find themselves in financial peril. This also ties in with the excerpts by Sandel, about how the financial crisis of 2008 “rewarded” Wall Street for their failure. However, tying in these concepts with the theme of apocalypse, it is scary to imagine the state of destruction society as we know it would be in if the capitalist system faltered. It is this fear, I believe, which drives us to bail out banks and accept individual debt as a crime. Without the superiority of banks, society as we know it would not exist, which drives us to place the importance of the survival of the greedy bank above the importance of individual prosperity.

Response to "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," Alex Kendig 9/18/14

In his article, “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” William Burroughs argues that Famine, Plague, War, and Death (the four horsemen of the apocalypse) were created in a much more black and white time where a clearer distinction could be made between bad things. Nowadays, however, there are good and evil applications of just about any new advance we make in science and technology. From cancer research to the production of ethnic weapons, we live in a time where complex science can certainly be used to harm people. Even though we live in such a time, Burroughs argues that we are not reaching the full potential that we are capable of. He relates modern day humans to the first aircraft built by Orville and Wilbur Wright. Yes, the thing could fly but could it do all the things a commercial jet can do today? Not even close. Therefore, Burroughs believes we are not yet reaching our full potential as humans. Humans continue to build and destroy what we have built with religious, cultural, and ideological warfare. It is true that we as humans tend to destroy things rather than change our actions, but I am not sure I agree with Burroughs that we are flintlocks in comparison to rifles. Sure, we have a lot of work to do on an international level, but we can slowly and surely overcome the shortcomings of today in order to provide the successes of tomorrow. Humans treat each other so poorly that it is often easy to lose hope, but there are so many good things happening around the world that I cannot accept defeat and despair. I truly believe that some day humans will all come together. Whether this is because of an Armageddon or just because of the will of humanity to unite together, I do think it will happen. We can achieve so much if we put down our weapons and work together to solve the issues that confront us. Why fight, when we can live in bliss?