Fairness

2011

Thursday, January 6

1:40:06 PM

Fairness

If I had a dollar for every time I heard my son say "That's not fair!", I'd be a rich man.  Usually when I hear a child, most any child, talk about how unfair something is, they are usually talking from a very self-centered position.  Usually, they aren't getting what they want; that's what isn't fair.  Trying to instill a sense of fairness is a long, and often exhasperating, process.  

On the way to a full concept of fairness, almost every child stops off at the place where fairness means everything is equal; if Johnny has x, then I have to have x too for things to be fair - there are many other examples, but you get the idea, fairness is a mathematical equation and equality reigns supreme!  Fortunate many children learn that fairness is based on need, ability, capability, age, and any other set of conditions which can affect fairness.  I believe one reason have trouble moving to this level of fairness is they have to think about it.  It's not easy to have to stop and think about whether something's fair or not based on variables.  Life's too short to not have hard and fast rules...  And I beleive that's a large part of how our nation has ended up in the quagmire we find ourselves in today.

Our legal system seems to have picked up on this, so there are laws for everything under the sun, and it seems that for lawyers to feel useful (especially those in public office) they have to write new laws; not clarify old laws, not replace laws, or update laws, but add laws.  

Back to fairness though.  Many adults have not moved on from the simplest understanding of fairness, they have to make sure that if the 'Joneses' son or daughter is getting special attention in school, by gum, their child is going to get it too!  And since there's no law against wasteful or selfish lawsuits, schools end up spending way too much money on lawyers, the children whose parents demanded their 'fair share' or, other self centered "grab what we can" parents.  Schools have enough trouble without parents making life unneccessarily difficult.

Fairness then will always be at least somewhat subjective.  There is no reason though to dumb-down fairness to the point where the concept loses its value.