Disproving an American Myth: Life isn't fair.
"Life isn't fair, but life isn't fair for everyone.
I wake up in the morning, and drag myself out of bed. I stumble into the bathroom, turn on the shower. As I step in, it takes me about 1/100th of a second to realize that the water is colder than ice. After that chilling experience on this fine winter morning, I decide to go down and get a hot breakfast. As I look through the refrigerator and cupboard, followed by the pantry, I begin to realize that somebody forgot to go grocery shopping. The milk is rancid, since it was left open, so even having a cold breakfast is out of the question. No problem. I'll just pick up a greasy sandwich from Hardees, if I could only find my wallet that is. I am now very late for class, and very hungry. As I mumble about the evil of it all, my ever compassionate roommate replies "Life's not fair."" Something about the whole situation left me feeling a bit unsure, so I decided to look into the matter for myself. Is life truly unfair, or is it simply a common misconception? .
The first logical step is to figure out what is meant by fair. The American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language defines the word: ADJECTIVE: 6a. Having or exhibiting a disposition that is free of favoritism or bias; impartial: a fair mediator. b. Just to all parties; equitable: a compromise that is fair to both factions.
Is there a standard rule somewhere out there that we can measure things by to determine if they are fair or not? Is the idea of fairness objective or subjective? When something happens to different people, is it fair for one and not fair to the other? The answer is simple. For fairness to exist, then logically it has to be objective. If fairness were a subjective idea, than that alone would make the whole system corrupt, and there would be no way at all to determine if something was fair or not. Fairness is simply being free of favoritism or bias.
