The same thing is happening all over the world. One country invades another, and the aggressor gets away with it. The rich, relying on the power of their money, become even richer, and the poor, who have nothing to rely on, sink deeper into poverty. At the same time, we can think about such a problem and scratch our heads, and then immediately go to buy some product that brings income to some rich company.

I don't want to make you sad and depressed. Justice exists, and sometimes it really triumphs. Many cruel tyrants fell from their thrones. Apartheid ended. Sometimes wise and creative leaders come on the scene, and people follow them and restore justice. Sometimes dangerous criminals are caught, tried, convicted and punished. Society constantly reacts to the most egregious injustices and often succeeds. New projects have emerged that bring hope to the poor. Diplomats manage to establish a lasting and lasting peace. But as soon as it seems to you that now you can relax... It all starts again.

Even if we are able to solve some problems in the world at least for some time, we are well aware that there are problems that we simply cannot solve.

Immediately after Christmas 2004, the earthquake and the resulting wave killed twice as many people in a single day as the number of American soldiers killed in the entire Vietnam War. In our world, on our planet, things happen that cause a protest: "This is wrong!", even if no one is to blame for them. The tectonic plate has done what tectonic plates usually do. We cannot blame the earthquake on some vicious international capitalist, nor on the Marxist who appeared too late, nor on the fundamentalist with his bombs. It just happened. And then we saw the pain of a world that was not okay, because things are happening here that are like the unjust verdicts of the courts, but there's practically nothing we can do about it.

The most eloquent examples can be found in one's immediate environment. I have high moral standards. I thought about them a lot. I preached sermons about them. I have even written more than one book about them. But I still sometimes don't live up to them. The line between justice and injustice, between right and wrong, is not between "us" and "them." It runs through the very life of each of us. Ancient philosophers, in particular Aristotle, saw here some kind of flaw in the system, a complex riddle. In general, we all know how we should act; But we all manage, if not always, to do otherwise.

Isn't that strange?

How does this happen? On the one hand, all people have not just an idea of justice, but a passionate desire for it, a desire to make the world right, a feeling that the world is corrupt, which constantly gnaws and oppresses us, and sometimes becomes simply outrageous – on the other hand, although people have struggled, searched, loved, hated, hoped, argued, reflected, we seem to be just as far from justice. As well as members of all known societies of ancient times.

* * *

And recent events have shown us stunning examples of the violation of justice. Some people say that there has been a decline in morality over the past half century. In fact, it was an era when people were especially attentive to moral issues, perhaps the most moral era in the history of the world, when many people were deeply concerned about specific events that indicated that the world needed to be corrected.

Powerful generals sent millions of soldiers to die in the trenches during World War I, while they themselves lived in luxury at a safe distance from the front lines. And when we read the poems of people involved in this situation, we see that behind their bitter reflections there is anger at the madness and, of course, the injustice of what is happening. Why did this happen? How can this be fixed?

An explosive mixture of different ideologies led to the fact that millions of people died in gas chambers. Elements of religious prejudice, bad philosophical systems, fear of "different" people, economic difficulties, and the need to find scapegoats – all this was mixed up by one brilliant demagogue, who told people such words that at least someone wanted to believe, and demanded that human sacrifices be made for the sake of this "progress". As soon as we mention Hitler or the Holocaust, we are faced with the same questions. How could this happen? Where is justice here? How should we treat this? How can the world be fixed?

In particular, what can we do to prevent such things from happening again?