I May Not Like It, but I Guess Things Happen that Way

Among my pet peeves, perhaps my strongest aversion is to the concept of fairness.  The notion that fairness exists in our universe is contrary to all available evidence.  If one subscribes to the theory of evolution and natural selection, then the hope of fairness must be immediately abandoned.  Fair is a human construct to excuse inferior performance.  I challenge any reader to provide one example where all parties to a particular circumstance come out even in the natural world.  Consider these questions:

Does the ant consider it fair that the aardvark has a twelve inch tongue?

Does the aardvark consider it fair that the lion can run thirty miles per hour?

Does the lion consider it fair that the Cape buffalo has developed a herd mentality that offers protection for their young?

Does the Cape buffalo consider it fair that the Bushmen have the intelligence to develop tactics and weapons allowing them to hunt prey much larger and stronger than themselves?

The most troubling feature of fairness is that of relativity.  No, this missive is not going to present yet another treatise on the nature of the physical universe.  I know how much you love them; however you’ll just have to wait.  But I digress.

How fair the outcome of any event is judged to be depends solely on the perspective of the observer.  An outcome one party considers quite to their benefit may be held completely unsatisfactory by their competitor.  In any circumstance, where two entities are vying for the same scarce resource (yeah, I know it sounds familiar… you should have been paying more attention to “Economics for Drunkards” posted 3/26/14) one will enjoy some natural advantage over the other.  And that advantage is not a constant!

Consider your high-school years.  If you were paying attention to what was going on around you instead of picking at your pimples, you probably noticed that those girls you were attracted to were being dated by others.  But not all of your successful class mates were cast from the same mold.  Some of the girls you lusted after were hanging on the sculpted arms of the athletes.  Still others were hanging on the words of the grungy, dope-smoking poets.  It made no sense.  The only constant was; you weren’t getting any.  Well take solace brothers, either was I. Now does that seem fair?