Monday, March 21, 2011

Punishment and Justice

Danny recently posted a video of a bullied kid getting back at his bully by using physical force against him.  The action was met with all kinds of sentiments, but most notably, even when people thought perhaps what the kid did to the bully could have been really bad, most of us cheered for him, at least a little bit.  But why?  When is it okay to use that kind of force against someone?  What makes something justifiable?  What makes something simply punishment?  And is punishment really as useful as, say, our current "justice" system claims it to be?

How do you differentiate between punishment and justice?