The other day, I got into a deep discussion with a friend about the Human Flesh Search Engine. For those not familiar with the term, it’s a phenomenon in China where Chinese Netizens use crowd-sourcing in online forums to find a single person. Usually the search begins once netizens take notice of a person in some scandal that has garnered public interest, or the latest viral video in the Chinese blogosphere. Through forum interactions, netizens piece together clues and dig up the personal information of the latest “search query.” It has evolved into a form of cyberspace vigilantism that is incredibly powerful. People have not only been harassed, but fired from jobs and run out of towns. Amazing especially since China is the world’s most populous nation, and a developing country with a comparatively low percentage of internet users compared to developed western countries.

Central to this phenomenon of course, is the inherent difference between how westerners and Chinese use the internet. As my friend noted, Westerners use the internet as an extension of their real-life personality. Whereas the Chinese create unique identities for themselves, perhaps as a way of coping with the constraints of Chinese society.

This got me thinking on a number of different things. The incredible and terrible power the internet plays, the differences in how technology has influenced different cultures, and the right to free speech. But one topic has been at the forefront of my thoughts in particular: the tension between our desire for justice and the human need for grace.

A few months ago, I lost my sim card from Jetsonville. No biggie, it’s free to replace. Except that it was roaming-enabled and I didn’t realized it was gone until I received my phone bill from HK and called the company. The bill was easily 2 month’s wages of a college graduate in China and floored me. Thankfully, I was able to work something out with the phone company, but I was incredulous at what happened and mad as a hornet.

When I got the detailed bill, I had every number the person dialed (all one of them.) I’m not going to lie, I briefly entertained the sort of annoyance I could cause, and the reasons I thought I was justified in doing so. In the end, I decided it wasn’t worth it. Punishing that person wouldn’t make my actions any more justified than the act that prompted it.

But back to the topic at hand. Within each of our hearts dwells an innate sense of right and wrong, and the desire for justice when a line has been crossed. What I have noticed is that we never seem to be satisfied with the punishment dealt when we are wronged. In fact, we get angry over issues that never affect us (not that moral outrage is necessarily a bad thing.) The anger of Chinese Netizens is understandable (who stomps a kitten to death with high heels?!), yet terrifying, and I can’t help but wonder where we get it from. Mary Shelley’s gothic novel “Frankenstein” depicts a character who confronts his maker observing that man was created in the image of something good, but through cruelty and hatred has become a corrupted reflection of his maker.

The notion of justice is the reflection of fairness and goodness. Shakespeare expressed this in the oft-quoted The Merchant of Venice:

The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heavenUpon the place beneath.
It is twice blest:It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s,
When mercy seasons justice.
Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.

I believe that justice is a necessary precursor to peace. When denied, our hearts and minds cry out for it like air. Yet without mercy, our thirst for justice easily crosses the line and becomes vengeance. Without mercy, we are all lost, all prone to be judged by our peers. Grace is therefore the balance when justice is satisfied and mercy is granted on the undeserving.

Original article from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Human-t.html