"So it is."
- Minister Mason
Life is unfair in that there are many circumstances that are out of our control. From systemic factors like local standards of living, all the way down to the code that builds the cells in our bodies, we are all dealt a different hand in this card game of life, a game that though oftentimes unfair, is still one of the best to be playing.
Life is unfair because we might land ourselves in situations out of our control. We might witness injustice but feel powerless to act upon it, like how heart-wrenching it is feels if medical care workers who are often the ones who care the most for their patients inadvertently themselves get affected. We might feel helpless when factors out of your control such as societal pressure constantly influencing or have influenced the formation of the undesirable situations that you so often find yourself in, stereotypes that you so often put up with, or practices and processes that you so often don't understand the point of following.
Life is unfair because there are times where you feel indignant or see correctable injustice and say "hey this isn't fair" but someone who evidently isn't interested in productive discussion or making things better will rebut "ahah but life isn't fair" and you're expected to stand down and sit back and grit your teeth and clench your fists and endure whatever it is that had warranted this simplistic exchange in the first place.
I keep hearing people say that life is unfair. That's how it is. Life is unfair so suck it up and move along because it has always been unfair and will always be unfair and is always unfair and apparently has to always be unfair.
Except that it doesn't. And shouldn't.
The original intention of the phrase and saying "life is unfair" is to remind us that external factors beyond our control might influence our circumstances in ways that we cannot account for, oftentimes in an unmeasured and indiscriminate way. It brushes off injustice that we cannot control by normalising such occurrences through such a simple phrase, catalysing its use. Today, this phrase has increasingly been used as an excuse or even as a reason to not correct injustice, which I think might be unacceptable.
It is indefensible to claim that life isn't unfair, as there will always be factors beyond our control that might throw off even the best-planned measures of mitigation. However, it is inexcusable to use such a reason to disguise situations where we can indeed do something to improve said situations.
Why are some sectors of society still fighting for the right to education or gender equality or income equity? Why are we still bothered with helping those who are less well-off than us? Why are we concerned with upholding civil liberties and justice?
Because these things are important to us. We fight for these causes and these rights because they mean enough to us that we will unceasingly attempt to correct this injustice - to make life more fair to the less "fortunate". Because we have the moral and social obligation to do so.
Whenever life is unfair due to factors within our control, we have the moral and social obligation to correct the unfairness. Claiming otherwise is only testament to the laziness and lack or resolve of the claimant in rectifying inequity. It only stands to prove that this injustice is not important enough to these persons in the position to correct it.
So perhaps we should stop merely stopping at saying that life is unfair. Whenever we are in the appropriate position to do something about it and effect substantial change to the situation, the onus is on us to take action, because life is unfair except when it isn't, then it most probably shouldn't be.
- Minister Mason
Life is unfair in that there are many circumstances that are out of our control. From systemic factors like local standards of living, all the way down to the code that builds the cells in our bodies, we are all dealt a different hand in this card game of life, a game that though oftentimes unfair, is still one of the best to be playing.
Life is unfair because we might land ourselves in situations out of our control. We might witness injustice but feel powerless to act upon it, like how heart-wrenching it is feels if medical care workers who are often the ones who care the most for their patients inadvertently themselves get affected. We might feel helpless when factors out of your control such as societal pressure constantly influencing or have influenced the formation of the undesirable situations that you so often find yourself in, stereotypes that you so often put up with, or practices and processes that you so often don't understand the point of following.
Life is unfair because there are times where you feel indignant or see correctable injustice and say "hey this isn't fair" but someone who evidently isn't interested in productive discussion or making things better will rebut "ahah but life isn't fair" and you're expected to stand down and sit back and grit your teeth and clench your fists and endure whatever it is that had warranted this simplistic exchange in the first place.
I keep hearing people say that life is unfair. That's how it is. Life is unfair so suck it up and move along because it has always been unfair and will always be unfair and is always unfair and apparently has to always be unfair.
Except that it doesn't. And shouldn't.
The original intention of the phrase and saying "life is unfair" is to remind us that external factors beyond our control might influence our circumstances in ways that we cannot account for, oftentimes in an unmeasured and indiscriminate way. It brushes off injustice that we cannot control by normalising such occurrences through such a simple phrase, catalysing its use. Today, this phrase has increasingly been used as an excuse or even as a reason to not correct injustice, which I think might be unacceptable.
It is indefensible to claim that life isn't unfair, as there will always be factors beyond our control that might throw off even the best-planned measures of mitigation. However, it is inexcusable to use such a reason to disguise situations where we can indeed do something to improve said situations.
Why are some sectors of society still fighting for the right to education or gender equality or income equity? Why are we still bothered with helping those who are less well-off than us? Why are we concerned with upholding civil liberties and justice?
Because these things are important to us. We fight for these causes and these rights because they mean enough to us that we will unceasingly attempt to correct this injustice - to make life more fair to the less "fortunate". Because we have the moral and social obligation to do so.
Whenever life is unfair due to factors within our control, we have the moral and social obligation to correct the unfairness. Claiming otherwise is only testament to the laziness and lack or resolve of the claimant in rectifying inequity. It only stands to prove that this injustice is not important enough to these persons in the position to correct it.
So perhaps we should stop merely stopping at saying that life is unfair. Whenever we are in the appropriate position to do something about it and effect substantial change to the situation, the onus is on us to take action, because life is unfair except when it isn't, then it most probably shouldn't be.
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