Justice Eternal

Upon first read of Ecclesiastes so all may note the most quotable of verses:

There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless.

One can only wonder what it means to be righteous or wicked if, in the end, it’s all meaningless.

But the beauty of this statement is the subterfuge of locality. One must clarify the meaninglessness: it is a righteous man today getting what the wicked deserve. It is the wicked man today getting what the righteous deserve. The question to ask is what about tomorrow, or a long enough timeline?

And there in lies the advantage of being a Just individual: not to earn heaven’s favor, but to instead earn man’s favor for years later, and for your children and their children too. Not to naive excess, but at least to understanding limits. For those who remain exceedingly wicked walk toward extinction. Because there is an embedded absolute in all human relations: when someone burns you enough, and depending on the burn, and if they burn enough people, well, that’s either exile or getting hung.

This is the origin of Justice: the absolute inevitable reaction others will give you depending on your actions. Game theory. With enough humans in agreement, it’s over for you and your future family.

The whole theme of Ecclesiastes is emphasizing the meaninglessness of the life today, and the certain death shared the same. The Book must have a word count of a hundred for “vanity” and underscores the folly of gathering even wisdom (as it increaseth sorrow). Yet there is one line which peaks out:

Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun. […] wisdom giveth life to them that have it.

I would be curious out of the whole Book whether there’s another mention of genuine profit like the line above. There is profit to be had in wisdom… because it gives life to those that have it.

What does it mean to give life? I would reckon to expand and persist one’s family in our shared Eternity.

We often think of game theory as single actors in an isolated case. But if you stretch it across Totality — and demolish the distinction between father and son, melded as one timeless entity — then one can see what justice is.

Timeless Justice destroys the absolutely wicked family trees. A separation of wheat and chaff.

One could suppose the essence of Ecclesiastes is resolutely denying any meaning in a singular lifespan: shirk vanity.

That the only way to move beyond vanity is to seek wisdom and receive the gift of life. Spanned over centuries.

Until the wheat is harvested, maybe.