“We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” Louis Brandeis, US Supreme Court Justice (1856-1941)

A Just society values the individual based on something intrinsic to her humanness, not based on performance or position. We value the newborn child and dying grandfather, the homeless and poor, the wealthy and commercially productive. A Just society’s value for the individual derives from its belief in the individual’s implicit or explicit commitment to act beyond the confines of her own interests. Citizens of a Just society believe in the individual’s capacity to prioritize others over self, and they build institutions to facilitate that.

Making that leap to prioritizing others depends on losing ourselves in something greater than ourselves.

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