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Volume 5, No. 4
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Life really is fair Repeating something that's wrong doesn't make it
right The other day, someone was, I thought, treating me unfairly. I told them so. They, as predictably as night follows day, responded with the old chestnut: "Life isn't fair." Followed by "Get used to it." The first thing that went through my mind was that life had been going along quite well, thank you, until this person entered the picture. So, maybe it wasn't life that was unfair, but, rather, people. The famous quote, which you've undoubtedly used, and, at the very least have heard, numerous times, goes back to JFK, who used it when accused of unfairness by reservists who thought they had completed their obligation and then were sent back for a rollicking good time in the jungles of Indochina. Now, despite all his problems, I admire JFK for many things. However, he was dead wrong on this. The first problem is in how we define "life." Probably one of the slipperiest concepts we have -- which incidentally leads to a universe of sloppy thinking and sloppy rhetoric in so many crucial areas -- "life," at least in the sense that JFK used it, should probably refer to some natural state of existence, because he seems to oppose it to purposeful human action. You could argue that what JFK was really referring to was not a natural state, but a state that included human activity. That, however, seems to beg the question, and doesn't really withstand scrutiny.. The evidence just doesn't bear out the notion that life, as a state of natural existence, is necessarily unfair. Fairness has a lot to do with how we distribute burdens and benefits. As any parent knows, if you come home with a trinket for one of your children, there had darned well better be something for the other kids, all other things being equal. Otherwise, you are being unfair. If one of your kids has to mow the lawn, while the others get to sit in the house and play video games -- again, all other things being equal -- you will be accused, and rightly so, of being unfair. Life in its natural state seems to distribute benefits and burdens arbitrarily or randomly. Now, you may think that this is somehow unfair, but randomness is at the very core of what we usually see as fair. If I come home with only one trinket to distribute among my three kids, then the best way to do that -- other than to not do it al all -- is to put the names into a hat and draw one out. The others may still be cranky, but even they will admit that everyone was given an equal chance at the trinket. This is why many contest prizes are awarded by random drawing, and why we are so incensed if we find out that someone had discovered a way to get around the randomness. "Fix! Fix!" we yell." And by that we mean that someone has introduced an unfairness into a system -- randomness -- that we consider fair. Left to its own devices, nature distributes its benefits and burdens randomly. The sons of kings, as well as the sons of farmers, have birth defects. The daughters of kings and the daughters of millers can be devastatingly beautiful -- or not. The volcano envelopes everyone in its path. The Bible reminds us: "The Lord sends rain on the just and the unjust." And the wag responds, "Perhaps, but the unjust have umbrellas." And therein lies the problem. It is only when humans enter the picture that the randomness of nature is interrupted. So, when one segment of the population receives benefits denied to others, whether directly or indirectly, through human action, then it isn't life that is being unfair. It is people. When one socio-economic group is forced to bear the burden, for example, of defending the country, as we have now with the "economic draft," it is people who are being unfair, not life. Things we consider natural burdens -- such as congenital illnesses -- when borne by one segment of the population because of engineered economic inequalities, are not due to some supposed unfairness of life, but rather to human intervention. Life isn't unfair. It's people who introduce that. So, it's when humans intervene that "the fix" is in. That's where the unfairness starts. And, if you listen and watch closely, you'll notice that the phrase "Life isn't fair" is almost always used by someone who has just done something unfair. So, JFK was wrong. He was defending an action that was not only unfair, but led to a decade of unfairness -- and much worse. We don't do anyone any favors by repeating the error of his off-the-cuff, self-absolving statement. |
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© Copyright 2007 Carlton Vogt |