Discussion The Problem of non-material Impunity

[brimstonenfire_rain]

If I were religious, I wouldn't worry about it, as God would eventually take care of it. The potential existence of purgatory would alleviate my concerns.

This, for me, is a big problem in this world, and I can't find an answer.

Okay, so try to follow my reasoning.
If I scratch your car door with a key, I have to compensate you;
if I set fire to your house, I have to compensate you;
if I punch you and break your nose, I have to compensate you.
So far, so good.
Now, for example, if I go to get a haircut because I can't do it myself, and I simply don't get along with the hairdresser, and he intentionally starts shaving my head completely, by the time I realize it, it's too late because he has already shaved half of my head. Then he apologizes and tells me something like he can't cut them properly because my hair is particularly unruly, so I just get up and leave without paying obv.

The damage is done, the problem is mine; I would have to walk around with a ridiculous head, causing myself not only emotional damage but also a waste of time, while the hairdresser's day will go on as it should have been, he will remain unpunished, of course. I won't have any kind of compensation for the problem this person caused me. Could I go to 'state' and say, "Look, 'state', he did this to me, I want compensation"? I think 'state' would just laugh, and that's it; I would only waste more time and money.

Do you understand the point?
If two people have a child, and this child in the early years of life when he can't feed himself and can't understand, lacks proper nutrition that is not provided by the parents, the child will grow up with serious deficiencies and in adulthood will contract diseases because of this and will have to cure himself, but curing costs, so this person will have to spend time and money to solve a problem that has been caused by others, and he can never be compensated in any way, right? The problem could be nutrition or anything else caused by the neglect of the child, and most of them will manifest in adulthood, and it will be up to him to solve all these problems, while those who caused them can comfortably remain unpunished to live their lives. Anyone can cause harm to others, which will not interfere in any way with those who cause them, emotional, psychological, or physical harm, from dysfunctional families, acts of bullying, and people around us close from early childhood, problems that in some cases cannot even be solved and that could significantly mark an entire life. Who compensates those who receive undeserved harm, and how could they ever be compensated? 'Contrappasso' is the law of retribution in Dante's Inferno; it's so nice to think that someone has already thought about it, too bad it doesn't work that way.

 

[Mirrory Me]

Yes, the law can be very complicated when it prevents you from "seeking the right on your own hands" in the situation you describe... On the other hand, I don't know if I consider the punishment of others important or an action that promotes the cause, because it doesn't necessarily compensate for the damage done. It just gives some kind of pleasure, that the other will "learns his lesson". But then also, while speaking about lessons, there is a saying that "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger", so...

 

[Andrews]

I think we can't really intimately observe the life of others, in order to determine whether they're paying or not for past misaction. Things might be happening to one, but it's not always visible to the outside.
If you watch random people in their daily life, they do seem unwell more or less, as if they're paying for sth.
A bad hairdresser could pay for bad service with losing clients and then his business. Or by not advancing professionally, because he's doing a mediocre job all the time.
Bad parents could pay for improper child care with loneliness at old age, sickness and poverty, due to the child being resentful and spending his money on his own health.

If we add the concept of past lives things complicate - one can cause mischief in a past life, then in the current life he encounters again his old victim.
Now it's time for him to pay and he gets bad parents or a bad haircut :) (meaning that his victim from that past life, acts now as an aggressor) The aggressor might not get punished in this case, because he's just balancing the scale.

When someone does us wrong, we do wrong to him or others (resentment or revenge). Then others act the same as we. It's like we're stuck in a cycle that doesn't end.
It's hard to break it, it needs forgiveness, compassion, hope, pain management etc.
(Not to say the law should be abolished and wait for justice to come from somewhere above)