A few weeks ago, I heard someone at a conference say that expecting peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians was akin to demanding peaceful coexistence between the rider and the horse. Since hearing it, I can’t unhear it. It seems to fit like a glove around so many aspects of reality.

A useful filter through which much pain and overboiling rage across society seem easier to understand.

All social orders (from the individual to the collective) are based on underlying ideas of justice. Capitalism on the idea that all can be rewarded according to merit, which we establish through competition. Multilateralism on the trust that decisions are made together by sovereign states, for the benefit of all. Marriage, among many things, on the understanding that what we sacrifice in freedom, we regain in comfort. When the balance of justice is altered, the social order becomes a breachable dam, at risk from torrents of anger and discontent, wholesale change inevitable.
The justice fiction (for it is always constructed) is the glue.

In a world where our justice myths are fading, where few own wealth and many pay rent, who is the rider and who is the horse? Whose compliance is expected, and what justice are they getting in return? Who gets to define the rules of engagement? Which among us actively signed up for dynamics of domination? Are better things possible?