Today I was talking with a colleague about another tragic death of a young person. The runner collapsed and died during the Pittsburgh Marathon apparently with a “coronary artery abnormality.” No one was to blame for his death. He was born with this condition, although he was unaware of it. There was no person with a gun, a knife, or a bomb. It just happened. I called it “agentless injustice.”
It is not “just” that one should die so young, that their life should be over before it began. But there is no blame to be leveled either. There is not an active agent who brought about his death. Rather it is simply further evidence of the broken world in which we live. “Agentless injustice” is not an elegant word, but I think it captures an inelegant truth.
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