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November
16
2023

The Catastrophic Death of Fairness
J.B. Shurk

Some social psychologists believe that humans are biologically wired to seek “fair” relationships with others.  Some theologians believe that the soul’s capacity for distinguishing right from wrong leads a moral person toward the same result.  Whether genetically or spiritually inclined to prefer fair outcomes, we humans are not comfortable around those who cheat and prosper from duplicity.  Cheating is ugly and therefore despised.

Systemic cheating, however, now dominates Western life.  Elevating “diversity for diversity’s sake” over all other metrics for gauging achievement has reduced merit and hard work to second-class virtues.  Rewarding illegal aliens with amnesty has cheapened the sacrifices of those lawful immigrants who have struggled to integrate into their new home countries.  Allowing delusional men to dominate women’s sports has cheated female athletes of a fair playing field for pursuing excellence.  In ways big and small, “woke” governments, corporations, and academic institutions cheat Western citizens of the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their own labors.

Of course, systemic cheating is disguised in language that sounds noble.  “Woke” Marxists use “fairness” jiujitsu to force disingenuous and unprincipled change. 

Unfairly promoting a less talented person over a more talented person because of his respective skin colors is celebrated as a victory for “diversity” — a reminder that in the twenty-first century, racists are still obsessed with how a person looks at the expense of what thoughts occupy his mind.  Without any public debates or votes, governments have replaced “equal treatment under the law” with “equitable” redistribution — or, in layman’s terms, “special treatment under the law” — so that certain classes of people can benefit at the expense of others.  

In an amazing instance of Orwellian “doublespeak,” the State categorizes those classes that are unfairly rewarded as “underprivileged” and the people against whom it discriminates as “privileged.”  Never in human history have people with “privilege” felt so marginalized.  All this cheating is done for the stated purpose of “including” many different kinds of people, but it depends entirely on “excluding” people to obtain fraudulently manufactured and prejudiced results.  

None of this is fair.  Stealing the earned successes of some, so that others may benefit without sacrifice, has a tendency to permanently scar both the victim of the theft and the supposed beneficiary.  When hard work and dedication are spurned, a seed of dejection is planted that can spoil an otherwise promising life.  When unearned rewards become expected entitlements, the enriching pursuit of human excellence withers and often dies.  

Aside from the damage to individual lives, though, systemic cheating destroys society.  If humans are hardwired to prefer “fair” outcomes, then the proliferation of “unfair” outcomes makes life deeply unsettling.  If pursuing “fairness” in our lives forms an integral part of our spiritual connection to God, then “unfair” systems cause moral havoc on the soul.  Cultural bonds become strained, and the shared respect for rules and laws soon slips away.  

What is the quickest path to anarchy and civil strife?  The imposition of an unfair and unjust worldview that rationalizes stealing from those who toil and punishing those who succeed.  When virtue is mocked as another imaginary form of “white supremacy,” then vice rots society and leads it to ruin.

The cost of undermining fair human relations is immense.  The U.S. Civil War took more lives than every other American war combined.  The Nazi-implemented Holocaust killed two out of three European Jews.  Some fifty million human beings remain slaves today.  Wherever and whenever unfair systems are permitted to propagate, immense human suffering is the result.  And when those unfair systems are eventually repudiated, further human suffering is the price for emancipation.

One would think that history has been painfully clear on this subject: nations that deny human beings equality under the law will be afflicted with great tribulation and may even disappear.  When different rules govern different categories of people, there can be no prospect for future peace.

 

J.B. Shurk is a proud American from Daniel Boone country.

thefederalist.com