Is it not obvious that "No Justice, No Peace" is backwards?  It is essentially a threat.  We are closer to the truth when we say, "No Peace, No Justice."  Justice for George Floyd will never become the special blessing democracy brings to society as long as revolution is being stoked by special interests who have no problem putting justice before peace. 

The destruction of small businesses through the riots that are still ongoing is unjust in the extreme as well as an absence of peace that removes hope.  Business creation at its heart is the feeling of hopefulness and the willingness to use energy to produce a product or a service.  Why should someone expend time and money when faced with the expectation that his efforts can be destroyed in an instant? 

As of the writing of this essay, fourteen additional people have been killed consequent to the street riots.  None of these nameless, faceless people was less important than George Floyd, yet all of them were not allowed the privilege of public mourning connected to Mr. Floyd, because their deaths became necessary to fuel, to fertilize, the revolution.  Death resulting from revolutionary efforts is no crime to revolutionaries.  Rather, the death of strangers is the price that revolutionaries are willing to pay to advance their cause.  Power and control will come at the point of the gun — any gun.  In other words, the State is so important that the death of individuals can be considered collateral damage.  Some wife or husband, some mother or father, a few children will be saddened momentarily by the necessary deaths.  But they will get over it...or not.  Whatever! 

When the continued existence of the State becomes more important than justice for the individual, the continuation of life becomes unbearably arbitrary.  In China, the doctors who brought the coronavirus to light are dead, incarcerated, or shamed.  Russian patriots who complained of the spread of this same virus have been defenestrated.  Their families, too, will suffer momentarily for the sake of the State's need for secrecy.  Unfortunately, the same process is afoot in America.  The prosecution of the innocent General Michael Flynn is just such an example of the need for individuals to be sacrificed for the greater good.  How exactly is this different from child sacrifice to gods of stone and wood to merit a good harvest for the next season?

We fail miserably at understanding simple reality, that the State is an abstract construct without an independent existence from the people who run it.  If there were no people to staff it, there would be no State.  Let no one be fooled by the idea that the State is more than the sum of its parts.  Those parts are just individuals with special interests in seeing the State succeed.  The State is, in effect, their small business or corporation, and they will do all they can to see to it that the it does not falter, that it is not brought down by people who see it as just another special interest group — President Trump's ultimate crime.  The evil that arises from the imposition of State-worship results from conspiratorial actions.  Such conspiracies are not designed to benefit the State, only the individuals with vested interests in it.  Poor government policy results from the need to satisfy special interests not visible to the populace.

It is important to emphasize once again that the State does not exist except in the individuals who support and profit from it.  The idea that acts can be committed in support of the State must be vetted carefully, since it is far too abstract an idea to reflect the real and complex interactions that go on in the State's offices and conference rooms.  Rather, the chain of command must be followed closely to understand how any policy has been implemented.  We can see this process of conspiring individuals clearly as the plan to undermine President Trump unravels.  Individuals!  Always individuals acting to bring the changes they seek.  The State!  What State?  The State disappears when dissected into its parts.

Those people who insist that the State is primary and individuals are secondary are a most disingenuous lot.  Both justice and injustice arise from powerful individuals who run the business of the State.  Indeed, justice, fairness, equity, successful policy — as well as their opposites — arise only from individuals.  On the other hand, when a politician begins speaking about the needs of the State, without a clear statement of their necessity, back away slowly, because you are about to become a victim.  You may not be defenestrated in America, but you will undoubtedly become poorer in one or more ways. 

Image credit: Pixabay public domain.