At the risk of turning this into a blog about movies, Batman Begins is another great example of philosophy where you might not expect it. It’s a fun movie with lots of cool explosions, beautiful girls, and people coming to terms with things. Everything you want in a movie, right? But it also addresses a very interesting philosophical question, namely the notion of justice.
Questions of justice have been philosophically relevant for quite some time. Plato and Aristotle both made an effort to define what justice was, and philosophers have been continuing to attempt this feat ever since. Batman, running the ever-present risk of making professional philosophers look stupid by revealing something that is obvious to everyone but them, makes the bold claim that justice is balance. Bad guys hurt people, Batman hurts bad guys. The system evens itself out, and justice is served.
I was baffled upon hearing this. Could it really be this simple? Frankly, I think so. The difficulty with concepts of justice isn’t so much with figuring out what justice is, but in trying to find the best course of action for bringing it about. Questions like “whose justice?” or “how much justice?” are much tougher, and these are the things that we really struggle with.
Let’s say a coworker of yours, Karl (no offense to any Karls reading this), catches you sneaking in late to work after a longer than usual lunch break. He informs your boss (because he’s a brownnoser) and you are reprimanded and lose vacation time to make up for your digression. You are pissed at Karl, and you demand justice.
What do you mean when you say that you want justice? Do you want Karl to also lose vacation time and be reprimanded? Did Karl really do anything wrong? If justice is balance, what should happen to Karl? How do we get justice in these situations?
In reality, this is not a situation where justice really applies. You may feel wronged or upset, but what you really want is retribution. That is the “an eye for an eye” type of justice that Batman is talking about, and upon which much of our own justice system is based. But is that synonymous with justice as balance?
The questions are really beginning to add up here, and we still don’t know what to do about Karl. Luckily, Eastern philosophy has something to offer us that Plato (and Batman) might have missed. This is the notion of karma. Karma is essentially the notion that the universe balances itself with regard to rights and wrongs (this is an oversimplification, but you get the idea I hope). Justice as karma means that we don’t need to worry about Karl. He will get whatever happens to be coming to him, if indeed any injustice has been done.
This is helpful, because it allows us to be emotional about our perceived wrongs, but not feel the need to act from them. Karma is a liberating concept with regard to justice, because it takes responsibility for maintaining a balance out of our hands. More importantly, we don’t have to worry about causing more harm by reacting when it may not be appropriate. So the next time Karl screws you, don’t listen to Batman. Karma is about to kick Karl’s ass.
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