Justice Stew -- the difference between "Social Justice" and the "Just Society" is ...?

Remember when "social justice" had something to do with a "just society"? Now it's linked to other, slippery concepts: identitarian politics and "critical race theory". Does social justice mean social thought control (group think)? 

What then was the Just Society, back in the 20th century when it was the ideal? It was a society in which everyone had equal rights. There weren't separate racial rights, marginalized rights, disability rights, gender rights and so on. They were the same for all -- called "civil rights". 

"Civil" is related to "city" and "citizen", and civil rights developed to keep things fair and non-violent when humanity began massing together in large centres (cities). Spread out in rural lifestyles everyone could be individualistic, dreamy-imaginative, in touch with natural rhythms, or, in a word -- pagan ("of the countryside"). But living with the madding crowd was more of a challenge, in terms of keeping the peace.

So do we still have a concept of civil justice as practised in a Just City? What civil rights would it depend on? Some would be:

Right to free speech

Right to not read speech you don't like

Right to be offended, or to choose not to be offended, by multiple opinions

Right to congregate with soul-mates

Right to walk away

Right to privacy and quietness (un-stalked by CCTV and smartphones, or harassed by noise)

Right to access health care, contraception, and assistance in choosing to die, according to individual choice

Right to access nature, green-space, and the refreshing company of non-human animals

            The right to add to this list -- please do so.

What systems do these rights rest on? 

Government by elected representatives, separation of church and state, an independent justice system, and an uncensored press (and literacy to read it)

What institutions protect those? 

Schools, Science-and-Humanities study, public libraries                     (Can't afford university fees? Many a genius, inventor and leader educated herself using civic public library systems as set up by the self-educated Scot, Andrew Carnegie, and others 

Systems of professional certification in: health care, teaching, conservation, legal services.

Add some attitudinal flavours to this justice-stew, such as open-mindedness, historical perspective, and humanitarian spirit. Blend and serve! 

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Is a New Class of "Untouchables" Being Created?

Premier John Horgan of B.C. is suggesting that people who receive COVID vaccines will be rewarded with a certain “flexibility” not available to those who don't choose vaccination. He is “not prepared to speculate” on what limits to civil rights will be placed on the latter.

If there are limits at all as regards access to services, housing, employment and movement, it will create two classes of British Columbians: those with full rights and those without. Government-led ostracism of some will lead to full social ostracism, and a class of Untouchables will be created. A lot of very lonely people will be wandering around, shunned by neighbours. At a time when people are concerned about “marginalization”, Premier Horgan is proposing to create a new marginalized class. Marginalization on the basis of health choices is no better than that on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender identity and so on.

“Security of the person” under the Canadian Constitution includes freedom to choose what substances will be inserted into our bodies. Some people would consider no right more fundamental than that.

We also have the right, under the Personal Information Protection Act, to keep health information private. No one has the right to force anyone else to reveal whether they've been vaccinated or not: this is privileged information.

The Untouchables, under Horgan's proposed policy, will not have the same civil rights as everyone else, despite the fact that the cornerstone of civil rights in Canada is equality.

Where will those who avail themselves of their right to make their own health choices be put when they are barred from social life and public spaces, from earning an income, paying rent and shopping for food? Where will they be housed? In re-education camps?

Virus Causes Ladder Shortage

If "the first casualty of war is truth", the first casualty of an emergency is civil rights.

Healthy people not diagnosed with any illness are being told to turn their homes into jails and keep themselves imprisoned. Sheep-like, many do. Free-thinkers are in danger of being criminalized. The concept of personal adult decision-making is fragile, likely to collapse at the first puff of panic.

This has led to unintended consequences. Everyone has forgotten the shortage of masks due to a new shortage: ladders. People jailed at home have taken to their roofs as platforms for fresh air and a view of something other than a computer screen. To get up there, they've bought all the ladders. Suppliers are running out. Even people afraid of heights and without roofs have stockpiled some "just in case".

Unfortunately some roofs are steep and an increasing number of jail-breakers have fallen off them. Injured, they've had to be taken to hospitals where they're filling beds that might be wanted for virus patients, so Government has issued a new bulletin: 

LADDER PURCHASES FORBIDDEN. TRESPASSING ON YOUR OWN ROOF IS A CRIME. TEAMS WILL BE SENT OUT WITH BINOCULARS TO FIND HOUSEHOLDERS DEFYING THIS PROHIBITION. EXPECT FINES OR JAIL TIME -- AS IN, HOUSE ARREST. (PM clarifies - sort of: You can't be sent to public jail because you're not allowed to congregate publicly. If you didn't want to be sentenced to house arrest, you should have stayed inside.)

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Health Officer Recommends --To escape Covid-19 AVOID DIGITAL DEVICES

Ha! Scared you, didn't I? Although the virus does indeed land on surfaces like keyboards and smartphones, they aren't telling us to "stay away from crowded websites" yet, or "maintain distance from computers".
What would life be like if they did, if "computer virus" became a biological as well as a digital thing?
What if the Chief Medical Officer told everyone "YOU MUST IMMEDIATELY DISTANCE YOURSELF FROM YOUR COMPUTER BEFORE IT KILLS YOU"? Imagine the panic then - and the wailing about the economy.
Maybe we'd spend more time outdoors, enjoying nature and fresh air, and less hunched over our digital devices. That would be healthier indeed.
Maybe, without email, we'd communicate with hand-written notes, dropping them into each others' mail slots like characters were forever doing in Victorian novels.
We could have message boards in every community -- physical ones that is, on suitable walls.
We could escape the group-herding of Facebook, the mindless trash-talk of Twitter, the surveillance of Google.
This is looking better by the minute. Maybe we'd learn to remember things again, instead of just Googling them. We'd keep mind and memory in our brains instead of out-sourcing them.
We'd avoid the prison camp of Smart Cities like the one Google-Alphabet is planning for Toronto's Waterfront district -- a prison worse than any hospital, one where it's civil rights that are on life-support.
We would no longer be stalked by our devices which track us around cities and stores, reporting our movements to police and advertisers alike.
Maybe the old-fashioned Soap Box Orator would come back to the parks and squares -- anyone with ideas to share would stand up and speak, keeping free speech alive in the "agora". (Stand at the edge of the crowd to listen, if you insist on avoiding physical contact -- at least you could get to see the faces of other regulars. Actual facial recognition!)
Being outside so much we could watch birds coming and going, and the colours of trees changing, and at night notice the movement of moon and stars.
I don't know about everyone else but I'm feeling healthier already! I do get the irony of what I'm saying though: I'm telling you online how great it would be if we all went offline. So far it's but a health-work-in-progress. But thanks for the possibility, "corona" virus: if only you really did crown our lives with this silver lining.


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