But this voice does not fall silent, it calls us and draws us to itself, it makes us think: what if justice really exists, what if a world in which truth reigns is possible, although these things are so difficult to imagine? Here we are like moths trying to fly to the moon: we all vaguely understand that justice exists, but we cannot get to it.

It is not difficult to make sure of this. Go to a school or playground where children are already using words and talking to each other. Listen to their conversations. Very soon, one of them will say to the teacher or another child: "So unfair! "

A child does not need to be specially taught the categories of honesty and dishonesty. A sense of justice is simply embedded in a person. We feel it as if "in our gut".

Let's say you fall off your bike and break your leg. In the hospital, you were put in a cast. For a while, you have to walk with crutches. And then, gradually, you start walking normally again. Soon you will forget about all this trouble. You have returned to normal life. Something here was corrected, became correct, returned to service. You can fix the situation when a broken leg, when a toy is broken or the TV is out of order.

Why do we fail to correct injustice?

It cannot be said that no one is trying to do this. There are numerous courts and laws, judges and lawyers. I used to live in a part of London where there were too many law enforcement officers: there were legislators and law enforcement officers, the chief justice, police departments, and an army of lawyers nearby (although, since they were constantly arguing with each other, they were not well prepared for battle). Similar organizations that create laws and enforce them exist in any other country.

But at the same time, there is an impression that justice is slipping out of our hands. Sometimes its principle works, and sometimes, and too often, it does not. The courts condemn the innocent and do not touch the guilty. The impudent, and with them those who can buy off trouble with money, escape justice, if not always, then quite often, so that it is difficult for us to dismiss the question: why is this so? People do great harm to others – and at the same time they walk the streets laughing. Victims do not always receive reparations. Sometimes they spend the rest of their lives in bitter sadness, suffering from pain.

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.