A Simple Test for Justice
I've been thinking a lot about justice. We talk about it constantly but rarely pause to examine what we mean by it or which values shape our instincts when we bring up the term.
When people argue about justice, they often talk past each other because they’re debating outcomes instead of foundations. One of the most useful entry points I’ve found comes from a simple idea from philosopher John Rawls: justice is fairness. Specifically, the kind of rules we'd agree to if we didn't know where we'd end up in the system. Strip away titles, borders, wealth, or power, and ask what kind of system you’d trust if you might land anywhere inside it.
A quick gut check I often use builds on that idea: if this situation were happening to someone you love, would you still feel the same way about it? It’s not meant as a gotcha. It’s a way to surface values we don’t always realize we hold. Many policies feel abstract until they come for one our own. Empathy becomes a doorway, not the conclusion. It reveals how easily we accept harm when it's distant, procedural, or wrapped in language that makes it feel inevitable.
But empathy alone isn’t justice. If caring only activates when harm reaches our inner circle, the scaffolding is fragile. Real justice has to function in grey areas. It must hold up when no one is obviously evil, when rules are technically neutral, when harm is diffused across systems rather than delivered by a single hand. The harder question isn’t “Do I feel bad for this person?” but “Would I trust this system if I were the most vulnerable person it touched?”
Justice isn’t just about being kind in clear cases of suffering; it’s about building structures that remain fair under pressure, disagreement, and abuse by authorities. A just system is one you’d accept even if your side lost power, even if the people running it didn’t share your values, even if you weren’t the one benefiting this time. In a polarized world, that kind of shared vulnerability might be the closest thing we have to common ground.
