"It's not fair" and other childish memes

    "It's not fair", whined while stomping a foot, is often heard from preschoolers. The same phrase is shouted in playgrounds by kids angry at their disadvantage. By college age they are painting it on posters in protest of every perceived social injustice and once in the workforce they look for fairness under every desk.

    The truth is that fairness in not part of our universal construct, it is a manufactured concept that makes us feel better about the inequities inherent in our universe. There is a hierarchy to all things, both living and inanimate that cannot be wished or hoped away. In nature there are rules that cannot be broken simply because of the perception of unfairness. "Survival of the fittest" may seem fair to the lion, but the rabbit would feel otherwise. To handicap the lion may seem fair to the rabbit, but what of the lion's cubs waiting for food? 


    Therefore, fairness is subjective and is not the same as equality. Absolute equality exists only as an ideal. The formation of societal rules are an effort to organize and control our world while placating our apprehension about the lack of fairness. We humans are self aware, have empathy and "wish" and "hope" for everyone to have the same advantages. But rules cannot make strong those that are born weak or beautify he that was born ugly. Unfair? Absolutely, but unlike us and unaffected by the Human Condition, the rabbit being devoured by the lion does not waste his energy pondering how unfair his circumstances are, he is striving with every fiber of his being to survive.  We need to take a lesson from the rabbit.


   The concept of fairness is today being used as a weapon to cleave divisions within our society. To point to one group and denounce them as unfair roils up apprehension among the accused while serving as a battle cry for those with the perceived disadvantage. The weak being pitted against the strong, the haves against the have-nots, the producers against the consumers, the 99% against the 1%. President Obama would have you believe that we as a nation use more than our "fair share" of the planets resources, but fails to say that we as a nation protect and provide for a disproportionate number of people on the planet. Obama says that we need more rules to make our society fair, but doesn't acknowledge that the subjective nature of fairness means that to increase the advantage for some, he is handicapping others. He says that the wealthy need to "pay their fair share", but leaves out of the discussion that they are already paying not only their share, but the shares of half the nation that is not required to pay anything. 


    Marx was preoccupied with this concept as well. Socialism was born to remedy social inequities and was, in his mind, a necessary stop on the transition to the holy grail of communism where everyone in society would be equal. But Marx, like Obama, was unable to account for the inequality of human individuals. Some are more beautiful than others, some are more intelligent. Some work harder, or are fortunate enough to have had ancestors that amassed large enough fortunes that their families would be able to live in privilege and leisure for many generations. 

    Is it fair that some have more than others? Apparently not if your a child, a liberal or a communist.