In Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas,” Through this I discovered two theories of what I believe social justice mean. Social justice is equality to all no matter of social structures, race, or gender; everyone is treated as the same. Also it means that all of those who do wrong are punished, no matter what way it is, for their wrong doings.
In “The Scope of Social Justice,” the author talks about how some people pay taxes that go to good school systems but may not have kids or their kids may not go to those schools. I believe this follows my theory that social justice is equality to all. It is not fair that some more wealthy parents can send their kids to good schools while lesser families cannot. In a utopian society there would be no difference in school because every child would have the same learning abilities, therefore no need for higher quality teachers and resources. In our world we would see this as socialism or even communism. This shows that social justice cannot fully exist because there are always ways to refute it.
The author also talks about how the society may be in a free for all but there is a guideline that people should follow in order to keep others in line as well. This is like a chain reaction, if one person breaks from the pack then chances are everyone will. This leads to my other theory that those who do wrong should be punished. I realize that this may not necessarily be true because who would do the punishing? This would refute my classless society and cause social injustice.
Social justice can be defined in many ways and can be used in different forums such as a workplace, a home, or as big as a nation. It is very fragile and very improbable because the main point is that for social justice to be real, stuff like pain cannot exist. As shown in Le Guin’s short story even though people ignore the kid’s pain, it still was relevant therefore refuting the possibility of social justice because now it is part of their society and equality no longer exists.
