Justice or Cruelty?

    The question of when Justice becomes cruelty is one that cannot be answered in black and white, but rather in tones of gray, where there is little distinction between what is right and what is not.  When I dwell on this question I am reminded of something that Dr. Seuss once said.  Almost as though he was thinking about the line between Justice and cruelty himself, Dr. Seuss stated that "Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."  I fully believe this quote applies here, being as how there are so many levels to this question, and it invokes thoughts of many instances where Justice seemed blind, or extremely biased, like the so-called Justice brought to the people of Iran during the cultural revolution, and those people's personal justices with their changed lifestyles.  The answer that I have personally come to is that all Justice is cruel, and whether you see the cruel end or the justifying end depends on the cards you were dealt.
    The Cultural Revolution that took place in Iran set into motion a landslide of people giving up their customary lifestyles for the strict laws and customs of the supreme leader.  Statistics today have shown that over 99% of all Iranians are conservative Muslims, but this is not necessarily true.  I believe this statistic only points out that 99% of Iranians have conformed to the strict conservative laws and customs brought with the Cultural Revolution.  Just like the neighbor of the Satrapis in the graphic novel Persepolis, many of the people who are now "conservative Muslims" may not have always been, and may only be wearing that physical and social costume of who they are in order to avoid any punishment.  The supreme leader is bringing justice to the region in his own mind, and he is definitely unifying all the people by harshly controlling them, but he is by no means giving them personal justices.  Marjane's personal justice for that she does for herself is to tell the truth and not let the misconceptions of her society to become what she sees as the truth.  For her there is a personal justice here, but she is robbing others of their personal justices when she argues against what the teachers are saying in class, and she makes darn well sure that the other students know what she knows.  I say that she is robbing others of their personal justices, because others have accepted what they have heard, and they are relying on that to be the truth, even though it isn't necessarily all true.  So, knowing the truth is a justice to Marjane, while being unaware of the truth is a justice for others.
    The simple answer that I have come to from class discussions and through reading Persepolis is that justice always comes with cruelty.  Therefore, the question concerning when justice becomes cruelty is slightly misleading in my mind, because justice and cruelty are not two separate entities, but a single body.  It seems that no matter what kind of justice is delivered, there is always a party that is effected negatively, while others may prosper, so justice is always paired with cruelty, but the measure of each is determined by the case, and the perspective from which it is viewed.