Why should an injustice require an ADDITIONAL burden on an aggrieved party?
Because it's not called doing the EASY thing, it is called doing the RIGHT thing. The history books are littered with tragedies befalling those who stood up for what they believed is right. Have you ever researched the fates of many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence? There were more than just future-Presidents there. Many were farmers who lost their farms and even the lives of their families. Some were merchants who lost their stores. These were men who believed in their cause and suffered NOT for taking up arms, but SIMPLY FOR SIGNING A SHEET OF PAPER.
But the last post is what struck me. With all due respect, BKS, it is the CHILDREN with whom your argument would best resonate. (Please don't think I am trying to be condescending or patronizing!)
My five year-old employs this logic when she knocks over her baby brother (2 in August) to take back a toy that he (wrongfully) took from her.
She doesn't want to be burdened with calling for Mom and Dad to mediate. She doesn't want to negotiate with Patrick. She wants it, and she wants it NOW. Taking by force is the means to this end.
We do not live in a black and white world, but there is a lot less gray out there than people believe, especially those attempting to justify actions they know to be wrong. After all, if they didn't believe it to be wrong, even at some subconcious level, they would not even offer excuses in an attempt to justify.
Case in point:
I left some important documents on the counter and told my oldest (who was sitting there at the time) DON'T TOUCH THESE. My 3 year-old came into kitchen, climbed into a chair and starting coloring on them (!!) When I returned and asked her what she was doing, she smiled and said innocently, "I'm drawing a picture for you, daddy."
She had no clue that what she was doing was wrong. She didn't need to come up with an excuse that there wasn't any more paper in the house, that the documents really weren't THAT important, or that she didn't want to walk all the way into the living room to get another sheet.
But those were the three arguments that my oldest, stuttering and hedging (who HAD been told not to touch the papers) used when I confronted her for coloring a picture on one of the pages.
She knew what she did was wrong, and sought to justify it.
Employers and employees often do not equal power. To make general statements about right and wrong, something close to equal power must be assumed. If someone injures me unjustly, and I have the opportunity to redress that injury by stealing from them, it is not the same thing as stealing from someone who has not injured me unjustly.
This is a popular argument, used most by the left, seeking to stir up class envy and thus empowering themselves to positions of power themselves.
POWER has nothing to do with it. It is just as wrong for a rich man to steal from a poor many as it is for a poor man to steal from a rich one, despite the impact being felt much more by the less-powerful.
I think that we simply must shrug our shoulders and agree to disagree.
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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."