Justice for the Powerful

On Wednesday, we discussed how justice was defined in our reading this week. Justice is a major concept that is explored throughout The Republic. The different characters in this reading from Plato have their own experiences and ideas of what justice really is. To me, justice is retribution for any act of wrongdoing. Justice has many different definitions and meanings though. One of the characters, Thrasymachus defines justice as, “nothing but the advantage of the stronger." When I read this line, I felt a bit of annoyance, but I also felt like it was very true. When I think of the strongest that Thrasymachus is talking about, I think of rulers during his time and ours. These rulers, or leaders, really do define what justice is. For example, nowadays, if the president of the United States were to commit some act of wrongdoing, wouldn’t he get favor in the courts? Absolutely he would. When President Nixon was caught up in the Watergate Scandal, he got impeached, but once he was impeached he should’ve gone to prison for his crime. Instead, after he was impeached, his Vice President, Gerald Ford, pardoned him. Justice was served to Nixon because he was impeached, but any other person would have gone to jail for this crime. If he had not been president of the United States, justice would not have been on his side. In this sense, justice is absolutely in the hands of the powerful, but Socrates later shoots down these claims from Thrasymachus. In a sense, Thrasymachus has a very good point, and in my opinion, justice is one of the hardest things to attain in our world today. There is so much corruption and confusion in our courts that it seems like justice will never be widespread. Without justice, our society will be thrown into chaos. Justice is a tricky concept, and in many cases, people in power do have complete control over justice.