How the Fight for ‘Social Justice’ Leads to Premodern Hell

How the Fight for ‘Social Justice’ Leads to Premodern Hell
Black Lives Matter protesters march in Louisville, Ky., on Sept. 25, 2020. Darron Cummings/AP Photo
Philip Carl Salzman
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Commentary

Prioritizing the fight for “social justice” or any other version of “justice” is a guarantee of unending warfare. Obsession with “justice” focuses on the past, on allegedly unjust deeds suffered by the party deeming itself a victim. That the past is long, and includes an almost endless number of actions that someone might claim victimized them, doesn’t lead justice advocates to hesitate.

Philip Carl Salzman
Philip Carl Salzman
Author
Philip Carl Salzman is professor emeritus of anthropology at McGill University, senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, fellow at the Middle East Forum, and Past President of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East.
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