Cultural Suicide

Lady Justice symbolizes the three key concepts of the administration of justice;
balance scales to accurately weigh the offence versus the law, the blindfold to
ensure an unprejudiced verdict, the sword to administer the sentence appropriate to
the specific crime.
In our modern Western Societies (Europe and North America) we have lost sight of
the foundational principles of justice. We have conflated justice with ethnicity, race,
religion as all being valid reasons to temper the concepts of crime and
punishment. The current warping of justice falls into two main categories; desire of
current generations to overbalance the scale as payback for past injustices and
the use of religious practices/beliefs to excuse violations of laws and behavioral
norms.
Only through objective and fair administration of justice can we create a society
where all are treated equally under the law. Currently, we have drifted far away
from that ideal. The best children are those who are loved but also held to a
consistent and unchanging standard of behavior. The children whose parents use a
situational ethics approach end up thinking that anything they do is OK because
they can whine, moan, throw tantrums, etc. to get their parents to let them have
their way. We must reset our justice system to one that values the underlying
principles that are so important to a stable and productive society.
Please do not say, But there are so many injustices in the world that we have to
bend our administration of justice to compensate for that. I call that the kill them
with kindness approach. That is, we greatly harm people when we try to make life
too easy for them so that they become dependent on handouts and a legal system

that excuses their dependency. If people are to reach their full potential we need to
hold them to a high standard. Yes, when they fail we can pick them up, dust them
off, bind their wounds but also return them to the reality they must not ignore for
their own growth and fulfillment.
My point is that the laws need to be applied consistently for all, not warped by a
persons class, race, religion, disability, etc. I am aware that this is a lofty goal and
seldom attained. However, the current use of situational ethics to right some real or
imagined problem in the past is never productive and only makes people feel
entitled for the rest of their lives which removes any incentive they might have had
to overcome past difficulties and reach their full human potential. It also sends the
message to other advocacy groups that they should expect the same sort of
preferential treatment to address their own special grievances, everybody has
some.
A major and ongoing problem for us is our attempt to assimilate immigrants into our
societies. If we value our culture and the foundational values that make it work we
must eschew the temptation to let new groups of immigrants set their own rules for
their own enclaves. Of course we should not want to encourage different rules
enclaves because it can become a source of societal unrest and dangerous sense of
disconnect from the macro-society. Perhaps the most prevalent example of this
problem occurs throughout Europe and more and more in America. For example,
the Muslims desire for Sharia law and independence from our foundational laws and
behavioral norms. Many politicians tend to yield to their demands to keep the
peace or to preserve the religious freedoms guaranteed by our constitution. To me
Sharia law is not religious but societal and also if allowed it would prevent other
religions from exercising the freedom of religion they are given under the
constitution. Our failure at assimilation is causing a fast growing problem as more
and more harmful acts (ex. Terror attacks) emanate from these societal enclaves.
Governments in a wrong-headed approach offer rich benefits including large
welfare payments as a pay-off to avoid angering this growing presence in our
societies. This craven failure to take the only stance that will work in the long run is
tantamount to committing cultural suicide. Only by asserting with the proper force
that our laws and societal norms will be consistently enforced for all segments of
our society regardless of any groups desires to transform our society to meet their
desires. Only in this way can we expect to provide the blessings of our wonderfully
conceived society to all who will embrace them. If they cant live with that then
they should be going back to where they came from. If they want to stay they must
realize that they will be faced with conforming to OUR laws fully.