Let us go then, to the crux of the theme of vengeance and violence. I believe that the concept of "eye for eye" became standard in the Levant; later it was adopted in the Hammurabi code, in Mesopotamia, and later, it was adopted by the Hebrews, then, by the early Christians. Later, spreading throughout the Roman empire (that included the arab world). From there it was brought to the Western world through conquest and colonization by European colonizers; except that through the passing of time, the original idea behind it was lost.
The original idea was for people to stop from meting out disproportional punishment. But it became so ingrained in the culture that it is used to justify institutionalized violence. It is so ingrained in people it is used to justify individual violence.
It does seem to me that the reverie nucleus of the West has something to do with the climate of injustice. Is this the reason why they are very obsessed with the concept of justice, and of course, its "just" application? This does not mean that justice is necessarily bad. In reality, justice is a giant step in man's development. The only problem is when people use it to justify vengeance – when people use it to get "even" what was before "uneven".
For sure, this concept of vengeance is universal, but it was originally in the West where it was codified and institutionalized. It was in the West where it became part of the culture.
Do you know what is recited in all public schools in the US, and also before each congressional session? It is composed of just one sentence – that ends with the phrase, "and justice for all".
Yes, it is the Pledge of Allegiance, which reads as follows:
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance
Now, if the west wants to spread the concept of justice to the rest of the world, what about the "non-west"? What concept did it want to bring to the world? We will try to answer this in the coming blogs.
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Note: "Non-west" nations are those nations not considered part of the so called "west". I am not using the readily available term "East", because it connotes, "Orient" -- which is more associated with Asia.
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