DIVING INTO the history of the frequently revolting Supreme Court, now housed in that revolting temple of secular civic religion designed and built under one of the less admirable presidents and perhaps even worse Chief Justice, Howard Taft, the one that carries the lie over the door of "EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW" I needed some cleaner air so I went back to this lecture by Walter Brueggemann, Justice from Below.
What reminded me of it was his definitions of "justice" and "injustice" given at the beginning, which you will see, is a far different notion than the one the Supreme Court holds. As always, when I start transcribing one of his talks I keep wanting to go, maybe I'll continue this in parallel with Louis Boudin's text. The lecture will run out before the book does.
How about this. Justice is the maintenance of social relationships that keep life viable and human. And injustice is the practice of human relationships that make life not viable and human.
So what I want to do in these minutes is talk with you about two modes of justice in the Old Testament and so this basically is an exercise about how to read the Bible, my proposal for how to read the Bible.
I want to start with the justice that comes out of Zion, that comes out of Jerusalem where the Royal elites and the power structure lived and the liturgy was the liturgy of the Jerusalem Temple. They had a certain brand of justice.
Scholars have identified, as you may know, the enthronement Psalms of Psalm 94, 96, 97, 98 and 99 and those are all Psalms that use the phrase YHWH is King.
So listen to this from the Liturgy of the elites Psalm 93
He established the world, it will never be moved.
Psalm 96: The world is established, it will never be moved he will judge . . .
and the word "judge" in Hebrew is related to the word "mishpat" [justice]
. . . he will judge The People with equity. He is coming to judge the Earth, he will judge the world with righteousness.
Psalm 97:
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Because of your judgements O God that like law shine for the righteous.
Psalm 98:
He has remembered His steadfast love and His faithfulness. He is coming to judge the Earth He will judge the world with righteousness and the people with equity.
Psalm 99:
Almighty King, lover of justice.
So, what I hope you can see is that in this liturgy that celebrates the divine ordering of creation, there is a semantic cluster of the words I talked about yesterday, of Mishpat [justice]and Tsedakah [judgement] and Chesed [loving kindness] and Emeth [truth]. I don't think "Raham," compassion is there but they're all very good.
Now, what I want to suggest to you is that we should be very suspicious of this liturgy of justice because I believe it is simply a recital of mindless mantras, the way every politician is for justice for the middle class, etc. etc. etc. . . And it occurred to me it's kind of ironic in the use of such mantras that the People who care most about the flag and the pledge of allegiance to the flag tend to be the People who are the least interested in liberty and justice for all.
What I want to do is compare this idea of justice with the perversion of that by our own temple elites, including the legal profession, the judges and "justices" and the elites in journalism and academia, "Justice" which often makes life unlivable and inhuman, frequently inhumane, as well. You can understand how people whose lives are more than merely livable and who are far from any kind of injustice would figure that the Howard Taft, Neal Gorsuch kind of "justice" would suffice, the justice that makes it illegal for both the destitute and billionaires to sleep under bridges. The kind that often doesn't bother secular liberals in the media, in academia, even in many of those elite alleged non-profits that are held up as the protectors and maintainers of the allowable forms and extents of charity and "decency," who maintain a kind of charity to those who are deemed worthy and pleasant enough so as to draw in donations.
I might keep this up if for no other reason than I'm going to need it as this goes on.
What a surprise. Via Digby and Axios.
ReplyDelete"By the numbers: An analysis of 14 major metropolitan areas with fully and partly reported data found that hate crimes surged 46% from the previous year.
New York City reported a 96% increase as Jewish Americans remained the most targeted group."
Hate crimes against Jews are up 96% I'll bet that makes you weep (not).
Unlike you, I think all of it is unacceptable, only a Nazi-thinker would figure it's a contest of some kind.
DeleteI wasn't going to deal with this but as it proves you are an illiterate chauvinst of the kind I noted you are, here's what it actually says at Digby's
By the numbers: An analysis of 14 major metropolitan areas with fully and partly reported data found that hate crimes surged 46% from the previous year.
New York City reported a 96% increase as Jewish Americans remained the most targeted group.
Los Angeles experienced a 71% spike as it recorded the largest number of hate crimes in any U.S. city this century.
The total number of reported hate crimes in those U.S. cities jumped to 2,019 from 1,380.
Phoenix and Sacramento haven’t reported their total numbers yet.
The intrigue: Though Black Americans remained the most targeted group in most cities, anti-Asian American hate crimes increased 339% in 2021, the preliminary report found.
Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City broke records with the number of hate crimes against Asian Americans, while Georgia saw the largest number of fatal events with six Asian women murdered in two attacks.
In New York City, the number of anti-Asian American hate crimes jumped from 30 in 2020 to 133 last year.
I went to Axios to see the original that that was copied and pasted, it's far more obvious from the way it's spaced at Axios that Jewish Americans are the most targeted group IN NEW YORK CITY, "New York City reported a 96% increase as Jewish Americans remained the most targeted group."
It's not particularly clearly written, but you seem to have missed this:
Though Black Americans remained the most targeted group in most cities, anti-Asian American hate crimes increased 339% in 2021, the preliminary report found.
You also seem to miss that the study seems to be based on reports by police which I would imagine is an undercount of attacks on people in groups who don't trust the police for obvious reasons. The NYPD isn't exactly famous for its good relations with a number of Communities of Color.
You are a chauvinst, racist pig.