Psychology and justice: The need for an inner alarm system or compass to recognize injustices

This very useful article is from the insightful blog Kids Side By Side.

The case of the frog who wouldn't jump!!!

Do you know the story of the proverbial frog? The one you put in a hot pan and ouch; right away it jumps out into safety? Later, you put it in a cool pan and then gradually heat underneath of it till it starts to boil. Do you know when the frog registers danger and jumps out into safety?

Well, the answer is "never"! As you might have guessed, the frog's safety alarm only works if there is a marked difference between the two instances of life and death.

As human beings, we are very much like the proverbial frog. In another words, slowly walking towards the point of no return fools all of our physical and spiritual faculties and confuses all of our seemingly working alarm systems. To put it bluntly, we do not have an independent inner alarm system or an independent inner compass.

We do need a North Star to navigate to safety at each turn and at all times.

What is your North Star?

Where was the German's North Star as they stood by and watched their Jewish neighbors being rounded up and taken to the concentration camps?

Did the rest of the world do its share of raising alarm about the violence of Holocaust?
Most of us are not yet satisfied with the answers or excuses given.

For a Baha'i the North Star is The Teachings of Baha'u'llah. He teaches the organic oneness of all humanity. When He says; "In the garden of thine heart plant not but the rose of love", He is giving a universal instruction, an injunction and a global warning that if a soul is not careful the heart will be invaded by thistles and thorns of hatred, envy and anger. This take over happens so gradually and so quietly that we never know what has hit us. People even feel justified to be fearful, angry and filled with hate. They defend the fire that is burning in their hearts and in their houses and they reject those who do not see it their way.

Psychology has learned very well well that people can be and are always their own worst enemy. In one of the Baha'i prayers, we are taught to say; "O, God Thou art more friend to me than I am to myself…" or we pray; "Do not look upon my hopes and my doings, nay rather look upon Thy Will that has encompassed the heavens and the earth." We are taught to examine our own will and intention to make sure it is aligned with the divine Will which loves unconditionally. Without this constant adjustment to our compass and this daily reminder, we do go astray!

I suppose this explains why the teachers, parents and school administrators in Iran are Ok with making the innocent Baha'i children the target of their attacks, humiliation, criticism and persecution on account of their Baha'i belief, their Baha'i religion, their Baha'i Faith? These people must be feeling angry, fearful, envious, attacked, endangered, or something to act with violent, I suppose!!

Must violence alarm us only when we are the perpetrator or the victim?

In the United States, when there is violence between a set of parents, children will be considered abused and will be removed from that house on account of their exposure to the vioence between their parents. Neuroscience now confirms that because of our mirror neurons, the human brain cannot tell the difference between doing something, seeing it or imagining it. In another words, our brain neuron wiring and connections are impacted when we assault another, see them being assaulted or imagine them being assaulted. In either of these exposures, the heat underneath of us goes up and the point of no return becomes closer and more eminent.

Have the people in Iran become so engrossed and so accustomed to the heat of violence around them, that sounding this alarm about the situation of the Baha'i children in Iran seems ludicrous?

Have they been sitting in the hot boiling pan too long to know how hot is hot?

What can people of knowledge and good will do and must do to interfere with the cycle of violence around all of our children?

How do you know how hot is the pan you are sitting in?

How accustomed we have become to the heat of violence around us if we consider violence amusing and inertaining?

What are the daily sources of increasing heat under the pan we are sitting in?

have I asked all the important questions we all should ask?

What other questions you add?
What are some of your insights and solutions?

We are inerested to know.

May God bless
Keyvan

Used with the author's kind permission. Source is here.