Selda Bağcan, one of our most valuable artists, appeared before us in 1971 with the folk song "This Is Justice for the World". This folk song contained lyrics questioning, criticizing and complaining about fate and the world. Let's listen to the words in the folk song: "Is this your justice in the world, what wealth did you give, what a lover in the world. You are the world of the bad ones, the world that kills the good people.” Many people who listen to this song right now will probably make many comments within themselves. While some people will say that yes, there is indeed no justice in this world, others will object to this and claim that the world is a fair place. Is the world really fair?
My attempt to answer this question will start from a scientific perspective and end with personal comments.
“You reap what you sow.” “He who does good will find good.” “Justice will be served.” As we can understand from idioms and proverbs such as, people believe that everything they do has a reward and that the good are generally rewarded and the bad are punished; They tend to believe that they ultimately live in a just world where everyone gets what they deserve. This concept, known as the Just World Belief in Social Psychology, is effective in almost most areas of our lives and often has an important role in our relationships with individuals and society - and sometimes even with ourselves. The Just World Belief is founded on the hypothesis that the world is a fair place and people get what they deserve. While this belief serves as an important adaptation that saves the future from uncertainty, it also plays an important role in protecting mental health. Belief in a Just World has two aspects; The first one is “How fair is the world to me?” individual belief in a just world regarding the answer to the question, and the other is "How fair is the world?" It is the general belief in a just world that gives the answer to the question “Human behavior is shaped by various needs and basic impulses. Some of these factors are competence, control, cognitive consistency, harmony, self-esteem and the need for meaning. While these needs are met, the individual constantly experiences various adaptation problems throughout his life. It can be said that these arise from the individuals and groups in the individual's immediate environment, their shares with the world, and the demands and preferences they receive.
Adaptation problems. These beliefs are important in that they lead to incompatible attitudes and beliefs, thus leading to negative emotional experiences. These experiences push the individual to tend to be consistent in his attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. This tendency is explained by the concept of cognitive consistency. Cognitive consistency can simply be explained by the fact that our emotions, thoughts and behaviors are in the same direction. Otherwise, inconsistency will cause us to experience severe stress, pressure and tension. This imbalance puts pressure on the person to change towards a balanced state. In this case, people try to make their cognitions consistent with their emotions. In other words, beliefs and knowledge about the problem are partly determined by emotional preferences. In short, a person changes his cognitions to make them consistent with his emotional preferences. All these processes show that it is important to be consistent and fair in the events, people, situations we encounter in our lives and in our own internal processes. Now, let's take a closer look at the belief in a just world within the framework of these concepts.
We have heard the following said to someone who survived a heavy traffic accident with minor injuries: "You have alms given", it is believed that a good deed done by a person protects him from evil. Of course, in this case, it is also important that the person is perceived as a good person. When we think about this example in reverse, we see that the person who is perceived as a bad person uses the following expression: "He did good, he got his punishment." As can be seen from this, we tend to make a biased statement about the world being a fair place. Of course, we do this to ensure our cognitive consistency. So what happens if we start to think and feel that the world is not a fair place (the most important thing that can cause this is a serious physical or psychological trauma)?
Nowadays, most people are struggling with social and emotional problems, or even drowning in them. Poverty, natural disasters, human deaths, social and political conflicts, etc. situations can make people feel like they live in an unpredictable and negative world, which can lead to negative emotions and psychological It may result in psychological problems. Since this situation creates tension, it is necessary to deal with it. The first way to do this is; distorting the existing and uncomfortable situation in line with our own belief in a just world, for example, when there is a breakup in a dating relationship, one may think of the other as follows: “He didn't deserve a good person like me anyway, or he was already a bad person”. coping with the bad feelings that the breakup will give or will cause. It may be a suitable way of thinking for the person, and often other people around make similar statements to convince the person on this issue. As a result, by ascribing good to oneself and bad to others, a person achieves a positive balance in the spiritual sense. If there is an event that traumatizes us so much that we cannot maintain this balance (where our personality traits, our perception of events, our way of interpreting them, the material and spiritual conditions we are in at the time, etc. We change it in line with the negative event that occurs, which may cause us to feel negative emotions more deeply and to perceive ourselves as responsible for the negative situation and tend to punish ourselves. For example, when someone who is sensitive about not hurting people thinks that they have made a mistake in this regard or makes such a mistake, they constantly blame themselves for it, move away from them in order not to hurt them more, or harm themselves emotionally or physically.
As a result, perhaps one of the most negative situations that can occur in this process is to have the perception that the world is not a fair place, therefore chaos reigns in life, and even bad people and behaviors are rewarded in the world. This belief can cause the individual to live with a more pessimistic perception in all kinds of situations, from bilateral to social relationships, and to be surrounded by emotions such as sadness, anxiety and anger. Since this situation creates a very serious tension, it causes a situation that disrupts and therefore disrupts the psychological structure of the individual. In our age, the most important thing that people need is a sense of justice (which is related to the basic sense of trust that develops first in humans). what a post This situation shows a negative trend today, where hearts are trapped in bilateral relations with people who do not value themselves and cheat, those who disregard human life are not punished, there are many economic turmoils and gaps, there is inequality in education and training, nature massacres are committed for the sake of personal interests and many more. People are still trying to survive in a situation where the incident could happen. In order to survive, they either try to respond to evil with evil and express their anger, or they retreat and helplessly accept the negativity, not dealing with it. I think the most serious thing must be developing the belief that we live in a world where evil and bad behavior are glorified.
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