Vigilante Justice
There are justice problems on the internet today, of this we can be certain. Hackers break into thousands of machines for profit, the caring folk in Nigeria defraud the naive of their savings, spammers abuse everyone and, if the latest Stuxnet worm is any indication, nation states attack each other with viruses. Largely, all this activity goes on without recourse to the injured party. Laws are impotent, authorities hamstrung. Injustice, cruelty and unfairness reign.
It is simply the way of things that ecosystems of injustice are breeding grounds of discontent. Cries for justice can lead to the birth of vigilante justice. This is the source of the well known expression “justice not only must be done, it must be seen to be done”. Without visible justice discontent quickly grows on multiple levels. If people are not seen to get caught others become tempted to do the same and our sense of fairness is offended. Desire for justice lies deep in the heart of man. But it can be hijacked or redirected by others for their own purposes. It was Hitler who called for justice to be done on Jewish bankers for their alleged contribution to Germanys woes after the first world war.
Sadly, our generation has a poor understanding of justice and people are confused about justice issues. Often they find it easier to define injustice than true justice. One only need watch a football game where the ref makes a bad call to see this in action. This state of affairs exists because the very foundations of justice rest in truth. And truth is under attack today. It is suggested truth doesn’t exist, or cannot be known. I once said to a lawyer you can’t have justice without truth - and he laughed at me. But if nothing is true, or truth is redefined as opinion how can the right thing be done? Right and wrong lose meaning and justice becomes hollow or even a lie. Without truth the guilty can go free and the innocent can be jailed.
At 8:30am today the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) web site was subjected to a distributed denial of service attack. An apparent act of vigilante justice by those against the copyright wars publishers are currently waging against their customer base. Being as the site was outsourced a large part of the outcome was to cause disruption to scores of innocent third parties, hosted by the same provider. Therein lies the fatal weakness of the vigilante. Truth gets trampled in the self righteous desire to punish, and without truth justice fails like a wall without foundations. The innocent are lynched and the acrid stink of a bitter irony fills the air.
Having persecuted the innocent, who happened to use the same outsourcer as AFACT, I suggest the vigilantes won’t be very interested in justice on themselves. Maybe they’ll put it down to collateral damage. Maybe they’re say the means justifies the ends. Either way justice lies broken in the dust.
I am reminded of Bruce Cockburn’s commentary on modern justice; Everybody loves to see justice done – on somebody else.
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