A Just World Belief system, ( why it's like poison to the heart.)

[undergroundpanther]

The Just World Theory

By Claire Andre and Manuel Velasquez

Afterwards, they said that the 22-year-old woman was bound to attract attention. She was wearing a white lace miniskirt, a green tank top, and no underwear. At knife-point, she was kidnapped from a Fort Lauderdale restaurant parking lot by a Georgia drifter and raped twice. But a jury showed little sympathy for the victim. The accused rapist was acquitted. "We all feel she asked for it the way she was dressed," said the jury foreman.

The verdict of the jurors in the Fort Lauderdale rape trial may have been influenced by a widespread tendency to believe that victims of misfortune deserve what happens to them. The need to see victims as the recipients of their just deserts can be explained by what psychologists call the Just World Hypothesis. According to the hypothesis, people have a strong desire or need to believe that the world is an orderly, predictable, and just place, where people get what they deserve. Such a belief plays an important function in our lives since in order to plan our lives or achieve our goals we need to assume that our actions will have predictable consequences. Moreover, when we encounter evidence suggesting that the world is not just, we quickly act to restore justice by helping the victim or we persuade ourselves that no injustice has occurred. We either lend assistance or we decide that the rape victim must have asked for it, the homeless person is simply lazy, the fallen star must be an adulterer. These attitudes are continually reinforced in the ubiquitous fairy tales, fables, comic books, cop shows and other morality tales of our culture, in which good is always rewarded and evil punished. ...


If the belief in a just world simply resulted in humans feeling more comfortable with the universe and its capriciousness, it would not be a matter of great concern for ethicists or social scientists. But Lerner's Just World Hypothesis, if correct, has significant social implications. The belief in a just world may undermine a commitment to justice.

Read more..
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v3n2/justworld.html
The other side...Trauma and what happens to the"just world"

It has been said that torture represents an attempt to destroy a person's soul while keeping their body alive enough so that they have to suffer through the memories. That is a dramatic way of putting things, I suppose, but the description does seem to fit. Torture is at best a brutal tactic designed to terrorize your opponent. It is at worst a form of unrestrained sadism and gratuitous violence that perpetrators undertake, I think, because the act of torturing says something about who is powerful and who is weak. What is the nature of this power? It is the power to compel victims to never ever forget that the torturer has wholly and utterly owned and enslaved them. The act of torture contains the power to break someone's mind so that beauty and innocence and joy and the things that redeem the world go away to be replaced by ugly memories of humiliation, pain, brutality and loss. Just witnessing the result of this process can be traumatizing.

Psychologists sometimes talk about something called the Just World Hypothesis, which is a sort of core belief that most people have that goes something like, "I am safe in the world so long as I do good. Events in the world operate in a lawful and non-chaotic manner, and if I am a good person in the world, I can expect that the world will treat me fairly". When a trauma comes along (any trauma will do) you have a situation where your Just World Hypothesis is suddenly contradicted by an overpowering event that says, "YOU ARE NOT SAFE. YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL". When this happens, the Just World beliefs break, and what is left behind is a very nervous, very frantic, very frightened person.

Any random car accident can become cause for the Just World to break, but most of the time, after a period of shock and fear, many people climb back on the horse, so to speak, and start driving again. The Just World breaks but then reassembles itself resiliently. This reassembly is not a given, however. One way to describe what occurs in PTSD (when the situation becomes clinically relevant) is to say that in such cases, the Just World breaks and then remains broken.

http://mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=10790

[whistle]

1. In other words,the victim was dressed like Ann Coulter

[undergroundpanther]

5. Did you read the article?

Ann Coulter as vile as she is, does not deserve to be raped or tortured, nor is she"asking for it".
What she deserves to be confronted challenged and backed down forced to eat her words in a public debate and be seen for the bully she is. The humiliation of it would make her think twice about running off at the mouth when there are lots of debate challengers that can toast all her arguments... Read the articles I linked to, please. Might give you a little context as to why your comment in this case was not funny at all.

[twilight_sailing]

2. Yo, undergroundpanther.

[undergroundpanther]

3. Meow..

Hello.
I dunno if you are still reading..
I had to add more to the OP.

Read about what trauma does to just world belief systems.

I know my own "just world" beliefs are broken forever. I dunno if I ever saw this world as just in my life.. PSTD ,war And child abuse can destroy millions. So if anyone believes I am not positive enough, or I am a doewner..I ask that THEY please question if their own desire to believe in a just world is getting in the way of having empathy with others pain and ensuring justice.
That is my main point to many of my posts and rants I do you know..

[twilight_sailing]

4. I think I know you,

Unknown News, right?

Been reading you for years. You rock.

[undergroundpanther]

6. Yeah Unknown

You know me than..Well, Da-yum, Let me give you a bigger Meeeow! some purrs and a Pantheroni and cheese welcome for you,than..
Unknown rocks,I agree 110% And what is so cool about Unknown is there are so many good writers on there!!
For those who don't know..Unknown..
http://www.unknownnews.net/

Also I have a journal here on DU too. There's an obnoxious photo of me taken during pride there.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/undergroundpanther

[Leopolds Ghost]

7. I am religious. I never believed in a just world.

In fact, many religions differ on this issue. Tribal religions (and some versions of fundamentalist postmodern belief) tend to justify atavistic, social impulses such as scapegoating, xenophobia, human sacrifice, rape, murder by arguing just world hypothesis, combined with anthropomorphizing everything and arguing that "the gods do it too" (Brahma raping several of his daughters, etc.)

There are plenty of other peoples with beliefs that range from existential acceptance of suffering, to doctrines reflected in the book of Job (suffering is a test of righteousness) etc.

Most religions that believe in mysticism or an ineffable divine being subscribe at least in part to the eminently reasonable doctrine that pleasure and pain are illusions, or that attachment is a form of suffering. Certainly it is interesting to see materialists protest against asceticism by arguing that pain is, in fact, yto be avoided, although there is no scientific evidence for the "badness" of pain.

The real crime in torture, then, is to humiliate the person and emotionally scar them, convince them that they must do anything to avoid further pain.

[Leopolds Ghost]

8. The real crime of "Just World" hypothesis is liberals who don't believe in human capacty for evil.

I never experienced real trauma growing up (thank god, I have a pretty poor constitution for dealing with that sort of thing) but I never had many friends, either.

The real crime of "Just World" hypothesis is that so many
liberals use it to pretend that genuine EVIL does not exist and that
if it does, it's none of their business to promote social justice.

They attack and pooh-pooh movies like "DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE" calling them sensationalistic.

They ask for "sopurces" whenever it's claimed that someone they are
predisposed to support, did something wrong, thus proving the inherent
capacity for evil in all mankind, something they don't believe in.

They think it's OK to have "clear-cut villains" in the simplest of tales
and give "heroes" a pass because "it's fiction."

[undergroundpanther]

10. Thank you thank you for SAYING this!

YES those"liberals" who don't believe in the human capacity for evil are believing in something that permits evil to flourish.They are a menace to fair and effective justice.Yes things come in many shades but some shades can ruin humanity if it is not seen as what it is.Don't let belief dictate to you what is happening in the real world. Evil people exist they are psychopaths authoritarians and narcissists. And the psychopath is the ultimate true believer in a just world, they feel they are better than everyone and entitled..And that victims deserve it.

About evil people and the harm they do and what they ARE..for those doubters..
http://ponerology.blogspot.com/

[undergroundpanther]

11. ...Fantasies are realities for too many it seems..

They think it's OK to have "clear-cut villains" in the simplest of tales
and give "heroes" a pass because "it's fiction."

People believe alot of fictions as if they were real.
Religion is one of them.

But a knowledge of evil is not owned by the province of religion > Because Evil is in the province of REALITY.

Religion just talks about it more and embellishes it and says stuff about gods.So Why is knowing EVIL exists called a religious belief, when yes EVIL PEOPLE EXIST.. But really if evil, was a mere product of religion why do good people get tortured, why do we have jails to theoretically lock up evil people away from the decent ones for?

There has been a desire in people who can co exist to contain or kill the psychopaths and bullies amongst us way before ANY religion tried to claim evil as an act of devils or encourage people to doubt the reality of evil.

The decent peaceful people in this world are locked on a planet with charismatic, bullying, murdering ,exploiting, torturing, manipulating asshole personality types.With a chameleon like mask to hide how evil they are.A vile type of personality who thinks they can do no wrong, and believes they are perfect,elite and are entitled to abuse others without being held accountable.


Evil people DO exist, The world was NEVER just or fair because of the evil people in it. All it takes is for good people to do nothing and evil people flourish. Some even get elected. So,what do we do about this? How do we make our survival better to endure?

What or whom is the true threat to good people who do not want to torture others or dominate or ruin their lives? I'd say the threat is the psychopaths, bullies and socialized sociopaths,authoritarians,and narcissistic personalties living among us..


That is the real question, How do we stop evil people from hurting kids women, men starting wars ruining the planet without harming the good people?

Now What do we do to remedy this problem of evil personality problem??
Religion AND science have both failed to be honest here. They both are too corrupt.

Some of the answers are contained in ethics, social science and SPIRITUALITY together.And the answer is not warm fuzzy or tolerant.
Because for good people who wish to help ease suffering and injustice it is INTOLERABLE to live with evil.

Not religion or darwin...

[undergroundpanther]

9. I am not religious

Certainly it is interesting to see materialists protest against asceticism by arguing that pain is, in fact, to be avoided, although there is no scientific evidence for the "badness" of pain.

Yeah and it is the "scientists" who deliberately cut the vocal chords of dogs they vivisect because the"scientists" cannot tolerate hearing the reality of the pain they are inflicting on the innocent animal.
If the "scientist" was to hear the dog yelp in pain and fear until it died tortured as the"scientist" cut him open he may not be able to compete his "study" without feeling like a monster inside.
Unless of course the"scientist was a psychopath, like Frist..Psychopaths see no badness in anything at all.They are the ultimate believers in the just world, and it makes them into monsters.

There is plenty of evidence pain is bad for survival and for people and non humans..

The real crime in torture, then, is to humiliate the person and emotionally scar them, convince them that they must do anything to avoid further pain.

Partly right there..but Torture is not just a case of simple emotional scarring. I have PSTD I have been through torture.

The damage done by torture is not simple..It literally shatters what or who you are, alienates you from you. It destroys the 'self' and renders the world and everyone in it a threat to your well being forever. It ruins your life and makes you sick ,even decades after the torture has passed.

Torture breaks the very essence of a person forever.It breaks their access to their own potentials, it ruins any chance at their psychological stability, it takes away their chances at trusting themselves to live life and it ruins their relationships, destroys sex for them if that was part of the torture and for some it creates addictions and health problems that often disable and kill.
It ruins sleep. It keeps on torturing long after the torture has stopped.

It creates tremendous suffering inside the person's mind that sometimes only cutting oneself to a bloody pulp with razors can numb out enough to keep self control when these overwhelming emotions arise.

Torture and even witnessing torture causes triggers. .

This is how triggers happen, Say you are enjoying something fun than BAM in wafts a smell, you see a sight, hear a noise and it triggers the sequences of vivid memories,of the torture .It brings the original trauma back to you like it is happening again in the present.It is terrifying.
Also torture makes a person UNABLE to be present in the moment for long.Even decades after the events and even with years of therapy. Trauma literally leaves scars in the brain and it touches the soul by ripping it apart.

Traumatic pain like what is caused by torture is bad, if you think survival is important to our species at all.It is EVIL if you think love counts,And it is WRONG if you think having ethics and empathy can improve anything for a society.

[Lilith Velkor]

12. Kicking so that those who have eyes may see

...that telling people who are hurting that they asked for it is abusive, toxic crazy-making and therefore not positive.