A Companion of Social Justice
Mutual liberty on the whole can be viewed as being linked to the concept of social justice. In effect, social justice is where every person in a given community has equal access to the opportunities afforded to those who are the most privileged. And in a certain sense, this notion of privilege ought to be assigned in a manner such that those who are the least advantaged receive the most benefit from the economic inequalities in a society. This version of social justice has been discussed at length by academics such as John Rawls and clerics such as Óscar Romer. Where mutual liberty fits into the schemes of social justice is precisely in the creation of the social structure that would effectively permit the opportunities of the privileged to become available to all. Without a general aura of liberty, which is exactly what mutual liberty offers, then the possibilities of fostering social justice in a community are essentially shut out.
However, the underlying problem of directly linking mutual liberty to social justice is that in order to enact social justice, the liberty of others must be impeded.
Read more about this topic: Mutual Liberty
Famous quotes containing the words companion, social and/or justice:
“The Indian remarked as before, “Must have hard wood to cook moose-meat,” as if that were a maxim, and proceeded to get it. My companion cooked some in California fashion, winding a long string of the meat round a stick and slowly turning it in his hand before the fire. It was very good. But the Indian, not approving of the mode, or because he was not allowed to cook it his own way, would not taste it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“...I remembered the rose bush that had reached a thorny branch out through the ragged fence, and caught my dress, detaining me when I would have passed on. And again the symbolism of it all came over me. These memories and visions of the poor—they were the clutch of the thorns. Social workers have all felt it. It holds them to their work, because the thorns curve backward, and one cannot pull away.”
—Albion Fellows Bacon (1865–1933)
“I should fear the infinite power and inflexible justice of the almighty mortal hardly as yet apotheosized, so wholly masculine, with no sister Juno, no Apollo, no Venus, nor Minerva, to intercede for me, thumoi phileousa te, kedomene te.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)