Zesty Wednesdays: Justice

Bruce Wayne:   My parents deserved justice.

Rachel Dawes:  You’re not talking about justice. You’re talking about revenge.

BW:                    Sometimes, they’re the same thing.

RD:                     No, they’re never the same, Bruce. Justice is about harmony; 

                            revenge is about making yourself feel better.

When a verdict of ‘guilty’ is returned in a high profile court case, I’m often perplexed when I hear the response of the family (and even members of the public interviewed by TV companies) to the judge’s sentencing.

In some cases, people say “x years in prison is just not enough. We are very disappointed by this result.” Now, I realise that families of victims must quite literally go through hell after losing a loved one to some vicious crime. But surely the worst people to pass sentence on a crime are (i) the family, and (ii) a random passer-by who knows none of the facts of the case.

My questions are:

(1) Do you think we should trust our justice system, and why or why not?

(2) What is the difference between a desire for justice and a desire for revenge?

Zesty Wednesdays

As my best mate Lard has taken a break from posting Thursday Thoughts, I thought I’d maybe continue the trend in one form or another. Obviously my offerings won’t be near as poignant or delectable but I hope they stimulate some kind of thought…

Quoting from a recent post, “…I headed off to buy my last Empire in a while from Sainsbury’s. The girl at the till asked me as a matter of habit whether I wanted help packing then laughed at herself. She asked me what my excuse for not smiling was and I said I was thinking and she said I should smile instead. I wondered whether if everyone smiled instead of thinking the world would be a better or worse place.”

So, if it’s a choice between smiling and thinking, in your informed opinion what would make the world a better place?