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There is no just future that includes the USA

Jonathan Fisk
10 min readMay 19, 2021

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A sunrise in Honolulu, Oʻahu, as three military Osprey fly over the cityscape. (Photo by author.)

The myth of a just future for the US

The vision of a “just future for the US” is an oxymoron — a contradiction onto itself. Many have willingly laid down their lives for this seemingly noble cause. It sounds appealing, ringing of freedom and the other purported values of the US empire, and evoking a sentiment of peace and prosperity. It is also, ultimately, erroneous.

Before I explain why, I want to delineate what justice is and isn’t. Justice necessitates the liberation of all people and lands. A piecemeal liberation, where some are free while others are left destitute and oppressed, is not true liberation nor justice. Likewise, a future where the power roles are reversed, where the formerly oppressed invoke generations of systematic violence on their former oppressors, is not true liberation nor justice. Justice requires far more than righting the wrongs of the past when possible, with the shortcoming that the lives and the histories destroyed cannot be replaced — justice requires the dissolution of the systems and institutions that have perpetuated and would continue to perpetuate violence against peoples and lands. Justice, simply, cannot allow systematic violence to continue in any form or against any target.

The inherent barriers for justice in the US

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Jonathan Fisk
Jonathan Fisk

Written by Jonathan Fisk

Boricua/Taíno via LBC | PhD student in NREM, UH Manoa | B.S. & M.S. in Earth Systems, Stanford ’17 | financially support at https://cash.me/$Fisky

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