Blog Post 8

I feel like the term "social justice" is thrown around a lot in our contemporary society, so, lets define it right now before I officially begin this blogpost. The definition of social justice is "the fair and just relation between the individual and society" which seems like a pretty fucking rational thing to be asking for as a society. In general, social justice is an interest of mine because of the American philosopher John Rawls who once stated "Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others." (A Theory of Justice, Rawls, 3-4). Each person has these innate rights that have been founded on the principles of justice, yet the greater good of society has the tendency to marginalize and oppress those that do not come from great beginnings, yet great things are bestowed on those who come from small beginnings. Basically, what I am trying to say is that all human beings should be given the right of an educational system that truly has the student’s best interest at heart. For example, Rawls created a fun thought experiment that he called "The Veil of Ignorance", but before I get to that imagine yourself in two standings. One where you live in poverty stricken areas, are harassed by the public for various reasons, are looked down upon because of the color of your skin, and your education doesn't care about you because you are not seen as being important enough for attention. Now, on the other hand imagine yourself living in wealth where you are able to be free from the judgments from society, and you attend the highly lauded private school. What position would you want to be in? And what if you could change the way that society looked at social justice and reform. The veil of ignorance wants you to imagine yourself being, almost like, a tabla rasa but Rawls says that, "no one knows his/her place in society, his/her class position or social status; nor does he/she know his/her fortune in the distribution of natural assets and abilities, his/her intelligence and strength, and the like.". The main point is for you to stop and think about "those personal considerations that are morally irrelevant to the justice or injustice of principles meant to allocate the benefits of social cooperation.". This is important to social justice. This idea is important for the establishment of a just relation between the individuals and the society that they inhabit.