“I looked at all the injustice that goes on in this world. The oppressed were crying and no one would help them.
“No one would help them because their oppressors had power on their side. I have also noticed wickedness where justice and right ought to be.”
Sound familiar? Sad to say, these words were written about 3,000 years ago by a king who had everything, experienced everything and indulged in everything, and still was not satisfied. He had wealth beyond compare, and had a lot of smarts to boot.
When we listen to the news and hear about another injustice against an unsuspecting public, we tend to treat it as something new.
Maybe for the person wronged it is, but the truth of the matter is, that the very same thing has happened many times before.
As a matter of fact, the same things have already happened more than 3,000 years ago.
So many individuals and groups feel that when they have been wronged, the legal and law enforcement systems do not mete out the justice they feel they deserve.
What I found interesting was this excerpt: “Don’t be surprised when you see that the government oppresses the poor and denies them justice and their rights.”
I wish I were joking, but if a king wrote this 3,000 years ago, and we see so much of the same thing today, is it any wonder that crime is as prevalent as it is?
Or that so many people feel slighted or oppressed, or in the need of justice? Or that the streets become overpopulated with society’s rejects and dropouts who use drugs and other damaging habits in order to cope, resulting in an increasing crime rates?
“The rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” is a phrase we hear a lot today, but it was also used throughout history.
In recent years, we witnessed the loss of most of the middle class. Their earnings — where did they go: to the rich or the poor? Three guesses; the first two don’t count.
On the street, a common phrase is, “The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over, all the while expecting different results.”
All of these refusals to make positive changes as a result of mistakes are not restricted to the street. We find it at all levels of society, including our leaders, even entire countries.
Yet, time and time again, we ask, “why did this same thing happen again? Why is there no difference for these suffering people?”
One of the reactions to an injustice is to find someone or something to blame, thereby justifying our own inaction to facilitate a change that might somehow correct a situation.
Sadly, we are all guilty of the same reluctance to change our way of life to stop repeating the same mistakes, myself included.
I just wish I could wrinkle my nose, or my ears, or whatever, and these problems would all disappear and we would no longer repeat the mistakes of history.
Having said all that, there are people who have made a lot of positive changes in their lives, and thankfully, they do not repeat these mistakes.
We would do well to seek these people out, and see what they have done to overcome this repeatable malady, so that we too can say, “not for me do things never change.”
Chris Salomons is a retired Red Deer resident with a concern for the downtrodden.