In most societies the idea of penalty comes at the price of committing a crime. It is a way to balance society and this attempt to balance society is borne out of our need to provide justice.
In nature there are similar things that happen - we get a reaction from an action - It is often elaborated on in the field of physics … equal and opposite forces …
However we explain the penal system as justification and we explain the naturally occurring event as explanation - it has nothing whatsoever to do with justice …
Sometimes humans will “react” to a situation they are in … which is outside their capacity to “reason” - In such cases, to use the term “justification” is errant … because to be justifying something it infers that there is conscious, intellgent control behind it happening. Often we give explanations to a natural occurrence and are blamed for “justifying” an unjustifiable thing … In such cases we should look back at the definition of “justice” can it happen without conscious control?
If a person has had his mother killed … of course he has not “just” basis to kill the mother of his mother’s killer … however some would see that as just … some however would not care - they “react” out of rage and do it without regard to any form of “equivalent retaliation” or sense of justice. On the side of the coin … if the person was given the chance to push the trigger to give capital punishment to the killer of his mother and CHOOSES not to … is that justice?
Well “yes” it is … because his “choice” - or intelligent processes were not compromised in that decision making process …
We talk about justification when “intelligence” is involved and we talk about “reaction” when there is no talk of intelligent control. The two should not be confused with one another.
Tyranny is a form of “action” taken by people when “justice” is not allowed to manifest … The only ways this happens is when ones own actions are seen as being “adequate means” and the other parties actions to be “unjustified” not matter what … When in fact the question itself is wrong …