Just world doctrine, also called the just world fallacy and just world hypothesis, is the belief that the world is pretty much just – or at least one’s corner of it even if the rest of the world is screwed up. There are “imperfections”, of course – like Nixon, Enron, Abu Ghraib, Love Canal and the death of Sean Bell. And of course new laws and reforms are needed from time to time too – and maybe a bit of sensitivity training. But by and large society is just.
Justice is not a hope for the future but an achievement of the present.
From what I can tell, this seems to be one of the main differences in how whites and blacks think about America and why they often talk past each other: most whites seem to take it for granted, assume it, while most blacks do not.
The experience of most blacks in America, particularly those who are poor or who live in ghettos, is not of a just world. Injustice is not a matter of a few “imperfections” – it comes standard; it goes straight down to the heart of what America is.
Meanwhile it seems like most White Americans do believe in just world doctrine. So much so that some take it as a given and reason backwards from it: if America is just, then so are the police and the courts, the schools and the press – and even, for the most part, large companies. Not perfectly just, of course, but for the most part.
And if America is just then racism can no longer a big issue and the troubles that blacks still have must be all their own fault. You see that all the time in comments on this blog. And you hear it from the mouths of Rented Negroes and other well-paid blacks.
Why people believe in just world doctrine:
- It is pushed on television and in schools – particularly in history books and on the news.
- It allows the winners of society to feel they won fair and square, that they are good people; that the losers need to grow up and stop complaining.
- If power in society and the world is exercised in your interests, there is little reason to question it or doubt its goodness.
- It can be comforting to think society is just and orderly even if you are at the bottom (though it is harder to believe).
The winners think society is just and have the power to push that belief on others. And they succeed in doing that with the broad middle of society.
But it is not just those blacks who love to complain and blame others who disbelieve in just world doctrine. Neither does the Bible, The Economist, Shakespeare, Jefferson, Lord Acton, Orwell, Thucydides, Tolkien, Plato or Aristotle, to name a few. In the Bible justice does not come till the end of time on Judgement Day. Meanwhile sin rules the world because of man’s fallen nature.
See also:
- Apple-pie America
- All the best writers live north of 110th Street
- black patriotism
- The police
- black ghettos
- white privilege
- How to argue like a white racist – just world doctrine is not racist in and of itself, but it is often assumed in racist arguments.
- Believers:
- black
- not black
- George Bush
- Barbara Bush
- Cindy McCain
- Pat Buchanan
- Steve Sailer
- Doubters:
Another brilliant post.
Will Smith… lol Do you reckon it’s ‘cos he’s golden boy? He’s oblivious perhaps?
“THIS world is evil, full of hate and blood, there is no hope for this world.
I hope that 2012 brings a comet that will blow the earth out of the universe and erase all of the disgusting human beings in it.”
yeah, people aren’t born evil tho, gradually some people become evil, we were made in God’s image to love God and love others as ourselves. To quote the movie a summer place, “our sole purpose 4 existence is to love and de loved.”
yep..good film deep and then molly gets knocked up in the end
“Lets go judegment day!
I can’t stand this world and the creatures in it!
Can’t wait to go home to the spirit world!”
umm…so r u just gonna sit around till judgement day and not try to make the world a more beautiful place??
I agree about Oprah and Will Smith, but, just for the record, I am not in favour of a comet falling on us. The world is screwed up but it can be made better, at least to a degree.
I love the Care Bear photo you used for this topic.
>>The experience of most blacks in America, particularly those who are poor or who live in ghettos, is not of a just world. Injustice is not a matter of a few “imperfections” – it comes standard; it goes straight down to the heart of what America is.<<
I had a discussion with a white Boomer not long ago. He opened the discussion with, "Don't you wish it was the 50s again?"
I looked at him closely to see if he was serious. He was. When I pointed out the reasons I am glad as hell it's not still the 50s, we debated, with him coming to the statement, "But you have to admit there was more common decency back then."
I attempted to point out to him that for black people walking the streets around white people who had the legal right to kill or rape them and suffer no social consequences, for people who are routinely and uniformaly denied food in most restaurants, medical care in most hospitals, even the use of a bathroom in most facilities, there IS NO "COMMON" DECENCY. What is common in that kind of society is INDECENCY.
"Well," he said, "that only affected a small number of people."