Saturday, June 19, 2010

"Social justice", the "just society", and the Tea Party

Despite my scare quotes around the phrase (see Hayek's entire book on "The Mirage of Social Justice"), this interesting article from what seems to be a religious site demonstrates that the concept of "social justice" might be applied more generally:
... one might [and self-styled "progressives" usually do] say that conservatives are really motivated by selfishness and not concern for the poor. Yet this is simply a failure of imagination, a failure to comprehend how conservatives quite genuinely believe that their policy preferences are for the betterment of all society and not only for themselves. Just because conservatives have a different vision of the just society does not mean that they do not care to bring justice to the poor and needy. [emphasis added]
These reflections come as a result of his observations of one of the many Tea Party rallies around the country, and, continuing a theme of simple political fairness if not justice, he concludes with the following bit comparing the Tea Partiers with their attackers:
I am less concerned with the anger and bigotry I had been warned to expect in the Tea Partiers than I am with the anger and bigotry I have seen directed against them. The latter, to my eyes, appeared the stronger by far.

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