It is one of the great ironies of life that being the victim of egregious injustice is not a gateway or stepping stone to being a champion of justice. Indeed, one of the most compelling and inspiring examples in modern history of people putting themselves on the line in order to save others from the hands of evil concerns a group of people who are not known for their suffering, namely the people of Le Chambon.
Known for standing up to the might of Hitler’s army in order to save the lives of thousands of Jews, the people of Le Chambon were ordinary folks with a strong religious faith. That is the distinguishing feature of the people of Le Chambon—not some egregious set of injustices that all or most its denizens had endured.
By contrast, when we look around the world at those who have endured egregious injustices, what we do not find is anything resembling a groundswell of commitment to doing what is just. The proof of this point is the very world in which we live. On the one hand, just everyone claims to be a victim of some injustice or the other. On the other hand, the very prevalence of injustice makes it manifestly clear that precious few victims of injustice are much concerned with eradicating injustice. For if most victims of injustice privileged justice, then the world already approximate some of paradise.
Certainly, what one does not find are countless cases where victims of injustice have gone out of their way to help other victims of justice. So it is whether we are talking about the black hood or neighborhoods of poor white trash.
Of course, there are stellar examples of people who have been victims of injustice and who went on to put themselves on the line to help others. But those stellar examples are very few and far between. For example, if all blacks were as committed to the realization of justice as Martin Luther King, Jr. was: well, the hood would have another name—the foothills of justice, say. Other neighborhoods would be synonymous with EMC: enriched moral recycling.
The explanation for this paradox of suffering is no doubt extremely complicated. But surely part of the explanation is that victims of injustice seem to be far more inclined to wallow in self-pity than to see the good that they can do. And as the people of Le Chambon remind us: the difference that makes all the difference is not money, but will.
These reflections in turn underwrite a very profound Aristotelian insight to be found in Book II of his Nicomachean Ethics, namely that good begets good and evil begets evil. The exceptions, alas, prove the rule. One profoundly important moral of these reflections is the very poignant truth that nothing is more conducive to a just society and world than raising just children. For history shows that it is those with just moorings—as opposed to those who know injustice first-hand—who are more likely to make the greater sacrifice for a more just world.