I have a penchant for creating concept maps and diagrams to explain complex concepts. Probably this interest and skill comes from my interest in the Qabalah.  Such maps are, I believe, utterly arbitrary.  They represent a perspective from which to examine the human condition.    This diagram organizes the six major forces that act upon and define the "human community" and their "actual justice."

Each person stands, as it were, at the center of this diagram, influenced by the six forces.  I have attempted to construct the map in such a way that it can be applied by both Theistic believers and utter atheists alike.

Justice as a function

Justice is the most important theme of social philosophy.  Religion too is clearly preoccupied with the question or problem of justice.  Most of the great thinkers on this issue emphasize the notion of justice as an interaction between humans in the context of a society.  Others stress the importance of nature and non-human animals in their concept of justice.  This is an old debate that today takes the form of ecologists and animal rights activists confronting those who put economic and short-term individual human needs first.  In discussing the diagram I am presenting here I do not wish to enter into a discussion of this debate.  However, it is important that I acknowledge my own bias toward a holistic perspective.  Any model of justice and success in society must be measured by means other than profit and wealth.  Be that as it may, the diagram below is not necessarily bound up with my ecological and economic convictions.  Rather, the diagram acts as a map to help demonstrate how a variety of forces interact to produce Justice and Community in a society.  

By placing Justice and Community in the center of the diagram, they are portrayed as a function of the interaction of six forces or "realities."  Two of these forces are external and objective.  The other four are utterly human.  It seems completely reasonable to question the reduction to 6 forces.  However, it seems less reasonable to consider the general, vague notion concept of Justice and Community as a function of the felicitous interaction of both human and trans-human forces and contingencies.  The diagram does not, as far as I can see, have any representational status in a concrete sense.  It is not really a map that you can locate something on, or graph something upon.  One always looks at the center to see the full interaction.  

To begin with, the entire diagram is built upon a foundation of two inescapable truths that condition our existence.  The first is ultimate reality itself--which for the scientist consists of the cold hard facts that surround us.  Basically, these boil down to substances, energies and laws of physics.  For the religious person, there is also a divine or metaphysical dimension.  I refer to these facts with the Hindu term Dharma, by which I wish to include the Chinese concept of the Tao, the Egyptian Ma'at, and the Christian Logos, and Creation itself.   One other essential truth of Dharma is the fact that "there ain't no free lunch."  Work is required for everything.  Technology allows us to move our labor to other areas, but in reality, work in the sense of exertion, perseverance and concern for quality is a reality that we can try to escape from, but somehow the "bill is always paid."  Labor, like Dharma, permeates the entire diagram. 

The second objective aspect of reality is Time.  By this I refer to the factuality of the passing of time, the unavoidability of death, decay, entropy and change.  It would also include the few things that remain relatively unchanged over time, as well as the laws of growth and evolution (or creation) within a biological system.  Language itself is an extension of this.  It limits and conditions our experience.  It marks time with tenses and creates memory.  Memory and archives of information are man-made, but they are a sort of inescapable truth that determines our reality.  Like the Kantian categories of perception, our experiences and our creations are always limited by our perceptual apparatus that marks things in space and time.  These are the proverbial "irremovable goggles" or our reception of the universe.  Within this model, Time has two primary aspects--objective flow of time and subjective perception of the flow of time and space.  In other words, experience.  Now-Here.  Past & Future.  

The four human forces are extreme reductions or "condensations" of broad impulses at work in our minds and societies.  Violence is meant in the most broad terms as any form of arrogance or subjugation that is used to create power for us.  We cannot eat without doing some amount of violence to the Earth.  Even the most extreme vegan diet depends on a degree of violence.  Meat eating is a more extreme form of violence which causes repercussions in the Dharma through pollution, increased resource consumption and health problems.  The very notion of "penal code" depends on a willingness to imprison or punish people for their actions.  Nationalism and racism are examples of this arrogance--the ability to favor one group of people over another, which can lead to war, slavery, colonialism, etc.  In other words, the concept of "violence" in this diagram is extremely broad in scope.  It is the exertion of power over others and nature. 

Hedonism is the force of laziness and escapism--leisure, entertainment, sex, drugs and rock & roll.  It includes everything from the most sophisticated of the arts--classical music and poetry, to reality TV shows like Fear Factor and Jackass.  It also includes the "vacation", the "weekend" and the curious English verb "to party."  It's not hard to see how important this force is in our lives.  It's also easy to see how excesses in this regard cause problems in the other three dimensions. 

Intelligence includes all forms of information, knowledge, bureaucracy, law and technology.  It is the application of human intelligence to our lives.  It is necessary for all forms of industry and government.  The question of the control of information is becoming more and more important for society.  Interestingly, as people become increasingly able to access information and knowledge, they also become much more inclined to Hedonistic escapism.  Instead of going to the Internet and newspapers to find out what is happening in the world, many people prefer to go shopping, watch reruns of Friends or Monday Night Football. 

Reverence is similarly defined in broad terms.  It includes all forms of tradition, ritual and manners.  It also includes the concept of holistic or ecological thinking.  It embraces the concept of sacredness and the scriptures or myths of a society.  It is the conservative force at work in society, but it is also the impetus toward environmentalism and human rights.  Every socio-political perspective hinges upon a conception of what we should be reverent toward.

So, let's take a look at the diagram itself:

Two of these forces are objective and external: Dharma and Time.  In an important sense they are one.  Dharma represents ultimate truth.  Truth contains laws of physics & economics.  Some religious people see metaphysical and moral domains impinging upon us.  Such a concept can be fit into the map, but it is not necessary.  Humanity must live in harmony with the Dharma, the Tao, the Way.  Time represents all change, growth, decay, permanence, movement.  Truth and Time are inescapable limitations on our actions.  One should bear in mind that legal codes may be Divine and absolute for some religious people, whereas the majority of people that I know believe that the only such law is the Golden Rule, which leads to charity.  The Judge and Enforcer of this law is karma, in the most scientific sense of the word: our actions are eventually rewarded appropriately.  This applies to war, pollution, rude behavior and ending terrorism.  For a Christian, the concept of Dharma would consist of God's Plan and Creation.  Time is the narrative of scripture from Genesis to Revelation.  

The other four forces are a function of human activity and thought.  These are four basic motives in our behavior, and ways that we attempt to control others.  The diagram can be applied to societies, governments, corporations, churches, families, and individuals.  In simplest terms, the diagram's purpose is to help illustrate how these forces are all tugging on us at every moment.  It is impossible to avoid them all.  Unlike Jains and Vegans, I do not believe that violence is completely avoidable.  Sandy and I consider ourselves ecotarians.  We like meat, but we avoid red meat, and eat no more than one portion of any meat in a day, usually in two days.   Meat production and consumption is ecologically and economically wasteful and destructive.  It's not healthy either, so we minimize it in our diets.  Slaughterhouses are a hidden violence in a shrink-wrapped meat-eating culture.  A society can't exist without some police and some weapons, especially not in a sudden shift.  A penal system is required, though the UNACOR privatized penitentiary slavery economy is a sinister idea.  Prisoners are replacing union workers.  A cheap boombox made in China is a product of a system that takes advantage of poor Asians to make some executives rich and keep us content.  You'd rather not pay the price of union labor to make your stereo or car, right?  Sweatshops for third world workers so the rich can workout in aerobic sweatshops. 

Each person, society or cultural practice that is plugged into this model reveals a complex interaction of the forces in the form of the multiple activities and creations of humans.  Let me give a really basic example--the question of the Welfare State.  

One truth of Dharma is that you will have to pay for the incompetence and misfortune of others.  There is no escape.  We can answer with charity or with punishment, but the reality of humanity as a community is that everything is interconnected, and everything balances itself out in the end.  Military approaches to solving anger of the workers caused by excess greed in a consumer class are much more expensive in terms of resources and lives.  Charitable approaches like humanitarian aid and education are more successful and vastly cheaper, but can be self-defeating if they create systems that attract people to laziness.  The force of violence, manifested through colonial economies in Third World countries, produces a world in which Osama bin Laden can be a hero, especially in a society where information is limited and controlled.  The same can be said of George W. Bush.  A strongly manipulated media has been amazingly effective in creating the illusion that George W. Bush is competent, benevolent and looking out for the best interests of America.    A strongly violent and philistine entertainment industry creates a world in Bush can seem appropriate for an important job like that.  But, thanks to the Internet, which connects us to the world and to other dissidents, Americans seem to be awakening. 

That should be enough explanation for applying the diagram.  Look at the diagram and try plugging various things into the center: governments, tax reform bills, agribusiness, Rush Limbaugh, Fidel Castro, your teenage son.  Remember, it's all just an arbitrary model.  Still, I think it's kind of interesting, so I thought I'd share it with you.  Let me know what you think.