Formal Justice in an Era of Empty Slogans and Collapsing Values

By Batoul Zahi Yazbek

It is no longer a secret that the slogans of justice and humanity have turned into a tragic joke. What was once a right people raised their voices to defend has become a heavy-handed jest no one wishes to hear, not because the words are flawed, but because of those who proclaim them.

They sing of humanity as if it were a poem, playing it on the strings of human suffering, chanting equality through a principle that grants them privileges denied to others. This era has mastered the art of listening to the groans of the weak, hearing only what serves its interests. When those interests are absent, they become deaf, mute, blind, as if they have renounced the very ethics they claim to uphold.

They misunderstood the human being, so they diminished his value, as though his worth were measured by the billions of people on earth. Since humanity now exceeds seven billion, crushing a few hundred million no longer seems to trouble them.

After all, how can the lion rule if the law of the jungle does not prevail and humans are not prey?

They wrote the laws of justice and humanity on a faded board of indifference, using them as an excuse to claim good intentions, through words not deeds. They say:“We strive for a free world, equal in rights and duties. Yes to freedom of opinion and religion.

Yes to choosing your identity, your gender, even your existence as a slave or an animal. See how kind we are? We give you the freedom to choose death or surrender… We are peacemakers carrying a rifle of crime.”

They flooded the world with honeyed slogans: “The human being first… and then the human being…”But when you point to a hungry person, a frightened one, a sick one, an oppressed one, a wounded one, a captive, or a murdered one, their answer is, “It doesn’t matter.”

Were they not the very same voices calling for protecting the oppressed, feeding the hungry, and even defending animal rights?

They dazzled the eyes, yet blinded the hearts. The world has become an instrument driven without will, applauding falsehood and feeling ashamed of truth as though it were a punishable offense.

They drowned the earth in ignorance and triviality so people would forget the essence of knowledge. They pushed individuals to relinquish their rights, their opinions, even their identities, under the banner of global openness. Every day our thoughts, beliefs, identities, and lands are violated, all in the name of justice and humanity, at the hands of systems driven by malicious interests.

They do not care how you live, only why you live. They want you alive solely to serve them, and if you dare to rise against them, they declare war upon you. A war of hunger, fear, poverty, even a war using religion, deploying their demons from the shadows while they stand in the light dressed as “angels” calling for good and denouncing evil, though their evil is their good and their good is pure deceit.

They seized the media and turned it into a factory of fabricated truths. Through it they broadcast polished images of freedom and illusions of democracy, adorning the faces of tyrants with elegant phrases. In education they planted the seeds of blind obedience, producing generations that know only how to consume what is placed before them, thinking only within limits set for them.

In the economy they buried the masses in debt, tying their livelihoods and dreams to institutions and banks, until the human being became a number in an account he does not even control. Even religion did not escape their grip, for they want to dictate how one worships their Lord.

So, if you seek the truth, do not look at what they say, but at what they do. Their refined language is a silk chain hiding iron shackles. Their words are honey, their deeds are poison.

Understand that justice today is merely ornamental, wearing a glass mask that shines under the light, yet shatters at the slightest touch.

Batoul Zahi Yazbek is a Lebanese writer and researcher. She holds a Master’s degree in Law in addition to a technical degree in Health Inspection.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely the author’s and do not represent the views of Nisaba Media.