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Life Is Unfair

"That's unfair!"  I keep hearing that refrain from people.  It is as if the concept is new or unexpected.  Life is unfair.  To be clear, fair is not the same as equal.

An unfair situation is often interpreted as one in which someone is being taken advantage of when the reverse is equally likely.  I know I have had my share of opportunities because I had an unfair advantage.  I got to go fly in a biplane once because my dad worked with someone who flew one.  That was unfair – everyone else doesn't get to do that because they didn't know that person. 

People get jobs, make friends, meet lovers, go to show openings, and all sorts of things because of who they know or who their family knows or works with.  I don't hear anyone complaining about that side of the unfair coin.  There are people who get goods and services simply because they are in the right place at the right time.  Any of this could be construed as "unfair". 

And, yes, there are people who are overlooked, discriminated against, arrested, hassled, and cheated because they are in the wrong place of facing the wrong person or are not known.  And that is "unfair".  But, it works both ways. 


We live in an interrelated and interdependent society.  As an introvert, I can tell you that I often think the world is unfairly constructed to benefit extroverts – for jobs, opportunities, politics, awards, scholarships.  Even friends.  Still, I live in this world and I must needs adjust myself to reality. Things are not going to be the way I think they should be or the way my kindergarten self was taught was "fair".  Life isn't fair and none of us would even recognize or want it if it was.  
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