‘No Justice No Peace’: Riots to Follow

“No Justice, No Peace” is one of a family of phrases that are the favored tools of the rabble rouser. Here’s a look at how it works:
 

The slogan “No Justice No Peace” has a rich history of use by demonstrators of many stripes, both in England by the “chanting classes” and in the U.S. It never seems to signal any good news; as Thomas Sowell notes, “The slogan ‘No Justice, no peace’ has been used to justify settling legal issues on the streets, instead of in courts of law.” I disagree – I don’t think anyone is trying to settle anything; they are trying to keep a bad thing alive.

We hear it again in Ferguson, Missouri and it might be a good idea to analyze what “No Justice, No Peace” means in this case, as it does so often lately. 

The idea of “justice” involves the concepts of fairness and retribution. Fairness is largely in the eye of the beholder. Angry shouters of this phrase have a good idea of what unfairness has befallen them. Fairness involves both a perpetrator and a victim and is one of the muddiest concepts in any language. The phrase is unsuited to clarity, but is well suited to gathering in aggrieved parties, each with their own interpretation of the offense involved.
 

Justice also carries a heavy inference of retribution. Even though the original intent may be a reasonable request for retribution on a holistic scale, it quickly morphs into a manic drive for revenge on a very personal level. Again we see a mushy concept that serves as a dragnet for the disgruntled of every degree. Demonstrators purport to say “we want retribution for so and so…”, but what they really mean is “I want revenge that satisfies me.” Young men in Ferguson, running from a beauty supply store with arms full of expensive hair extensions, are not worried about Michael Brown; an eruption of righteous-sounding activity has given them the green light to steal from their neighbors.