Systems of Justice

The term Justice can be defined as just behaviour or treatment and the term power can be defined as the ability to do something or act in a particular way. Therefore we can say justice is only beneficial to those with power. The way in which this is shown in Antigone is Creon's ability to manipulate the law to favour him rather than what is actually just. This can be related to a modern day issue too with a well know corporation called Apple and their powerful global ability to change the justice of human rights to their companies needs. However, organisations like Amnesty International are able to get justice with very little power and Antigone was able to create justice on Creon with having almost no power over him at all but instead using words and actions to provide things her way.

Power is able to help Creon with his ruling of the land because it gives him the ability to change the rules depending on his needs, and in fact many of the laws he creates are preferential to him. Creon during the play was able to kill and take the throne with reasons that purely worked to his needs. Without thinking of consequences Creon used his power un-justly and without thinking of others. The un-just treatment of Polynices and his brother are perfect examples of this. While Eteocles was buried after dying in battle Polynices was not. He was instead left to rot. If the law was correct and not affected by power then they both would have been buried as soldiers in battle. But because of Creon's power he was able to manipulate the law to suit his needs. Not only proving him as an evil dictator but also to be maintaining a land over run by rules that only benefit the people in power.

A similar situation is happening in the 21st century too. Although Human Right laws have been created to protect workers in especially Asian run sweatshops, Apple having the power and influence of a trans national corporation manages to twist this law to their own needs not necessarily thinking of the worker. Apple gets its electronics supplied to it by an Asian technology company called Foxconn. Unfortunately workers are made to work sometimes 20-hour days and actually live on the worksite. Nets had to be put up around the top of buildings because of the amount of people that were committing suicide off them. UN human right laws should be preventing the 20-hour days and the conditions in which they live but because of Apple's international power the laws seem to be avoided. Foxconn workers have no laws to protect them and instead must continue on working this way. And surely Apple should be sued or taken the criminal court as well as the current managers and owners of Foxconn but because of the power they possess justice will not come for them. That is again why justice only serves those in power.

However, there are cases of power not controlling justice at all in both the play Antigone and modern times. In Antigone