Justice versus Fairness

Justice versus Fairness
Everyone likes the word justice, but my guess is that few people actually understand the word. In Plato’s Republic, Socrates proved justice is not when a person gets what is his or her due. Rather, justice is a gift. When one receives his or her due, then it is not always a gift. That is justice is a positive word, only. When someone gets his or her due it is not justice, but fairness.
Fairness is actually very different from justice. In all fairness, humans might say that we as a species deserve a few genocides, as we have caused these to other species. If the world were fair, then humans would be raised in pens like chickens and slaughtered for meat, as that is what we do to them.
Justice is very different from fairness. Justice does not require these inhumane slaughters of humans in order to make up for what we have done to the planet. In justice, we can justify eating meat, but also say that cannibalism is not just.
Perhaps, the greatest difference between justice and fairness is that justice knows of a G-d. Most importantly, when one observes reality the way of things indicates that reality is just. However, reality does not have the appearance of being fair. The most important attribute of justice is that it is severe. Observe the world. It is a severe world. Observance of the severity of reality, justice, leads to ideas such as survival of the fittest. This reality humans know of is easily observable as just because it is governed by the laws of science. That is through the laws of science G-d demonstrates his sovereignty to the world though some may cry foul that this world is not fair. Yet, justice is superior to fairness.
Fairness is entirely a human construct, a product of wisdom. Fairness is something humans have attempted to instate in our dominion to the world. I would argue that fairness is in fact important to the grand scheme of humanity, and that it is not a flawed idea in itself. Both justice and fairness are good, but fairness is a lot less deeply entrenched in reason than justice.
Justice does not include the idea of punishment. Punishment is hollow. It does not rehabilitate. Observe prisons. They do not rehabilitate the people within their ranks. In fact, prisons often make people worse. Prison is a byproduct of fairness. That is, it should be seen as fair that someone should be punished for a crime that he or she commits. This is not a bad thing though, but it is just not justice, as justice is always positive. Justice does not harm, as it creates discipline. Discipline is something helpful, as something such as survival of the fittest creates a disciplined species, and in fact it is more helpful than punishment, as punishment often makes people worse. It is fair to give someone their due, to make someone worse for having made someone else worse, but these actions fall short of the positive implications justice would have to creating discipline.
In order for something to be just, it needs more than just the wisdom of fairness. Most importantly there are building blocks that make up justice, and these include not only wisdom, but actual know how, full blown intelligence subjugated to the expansion and contractions of reason.
Justice must also be preceded by mercy. The USA court system knows this. It’s called innocent before proven guilty. That is mercy should know an end, as with endless mercy there is no justice. However, it should almost be that justice creeps in when one is at the limits of mercy. That is, mercy is also beneficial, but endless mercy is not. There comes a time when mercy runs out, such that it needs discipline. Those that have the knowledge to discern these points were mercy is no longer beneficial are judges.
Judges are only as good as their results. Thus, we can judge if something was in fact just by the fruits the action of judgment yields. A good judgment should always result in temperance of the scene of the infraction in question. That is in fairness, foul may be cried. Fairness may be too harsh, as it is only wise, and not necessarily merciful. Without mercy fouls are committed, as mercy could never allow genocide though fairness may mandate it. Since true justice is never without mercy, genocide is never just.Strangely, we have record of mass extinctions in the fossil record the byproduct of a just G-d. However, by the laws of physics governing the world these mass extinctions caused less suffering to the animals than would have happened if G-d were not merciful. That is genocide is far different from mass extinction. Genocide may only occur with human intent, and it can only be seen as inhumane, but mass extinction is what it is by the physics of death where death serves to end the pain. Conversely, in genocide humans proactively create pain that is senseless and impossible to be beneficial.