Survival Of The Fittest Isn’t Fair

What is?

The sun shines during the day but not at night. Some think that’s unfair. Don’t try to make the sun fair, though, because it won’t work.

According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, the animal world is all about the survival of the fittest. People are animals, too, although, we don’t catch and eat each other. Not typically. I hope… Anyway, our “survival” is metaphorical. We divide ourselves into haves and have-nots at the two extremes of the spectrum with a few gradations in between like so-so-haves, ok-haves, almost-haves, et cetera. Each gradation loves to complain about the higher-ups taking away the means of survival. Millionaires sometimes complain about billionaires being unfair, which is truly grotesque.

It is interesting to observe complainers who can’t stop wanting more despite having a lot. These folks ought to get over themselves. There are so many of these “victims of unfairness” nowadays that it’s easy to miss people who are actually treated unfairly.

What can be done to restore fairness?

Teaching children about fairness from an early age is, probably, the most important thing to do. Unfortunately, our teaching them doesn’t guarantee much success because concepts like objectivity, neutrality, tolerance, impartiality, sanity, and many more escape us. Speaking of sanity, for example, if you think the sun needs to shine at night, we are all screwed. And even if you’ve changed your mind and now think it’s fair for the sun to shine only during the day, we are still screwed. Arguably, we are even more screwed in the latter case.

Turns out, for all intents and purposes, the majority of us are, as a British lawmaker once remarked, nutters. It’s a miracle some of us manage to strike a fair balance. No wonder we can’t teach our children about fairness, or, if we think we taught them something about it, it’s, usually, crap. We can’t even figure it out ourselves.

The justice system – the very foundation and reflection of a fair society – is supposed to be… fair. It would be most of the time if only nutters like us stayed out of it.

We see fairness differently. Some of us believe it’s fair to treat each other unfairly. In fact, to redefine the term, unfairness is fair so much so that those of us who subscribe to such “black is white” notions will use them as foundations for a “scorched Earth” approach on any topic. This approach is devoid of logic, logic being also unfair, I suppose.

How can I, possibly, justify racism, or sexism, or ageism, or any other ”ism?” I can’t, yet its prevalence throughout history suggests some kind of a struggle of, possibly, existential proportions. It’s almost as if we persist in our “isms” in order to weed out the fittest, or so it seems. It’s the necessary evil, one might say.

The struggle, however, is within us, I believe, and has nothing to do with others being of a different race, the opposite sex, an older age, or whatnot. When a personal struggle is projected onto others, it is not a sign of fitness. The solution here, I think, would be to seek professional counseling. A sign of fitness might be respect. The kind of respect we show our young children, for example, even though, as adults, we are the fittest.

The “isms” simply cannot be seen as the survival tactic because they appear to destroy our selves, our sanity. Sanity cannot survive in a battle against itself. Therefore, there can be no talk of being the fittest, nor of the survival. For example, the claim of ”white” superiority is not the survival of the fittest. Superiority claims presume inferiority on the part of the claimants, or else they wouldn’t try to claim what they already had. People just feel empowered when they discriminate against other people, which smells of weakness if not of mental illness, and it is unquestionably evil.

How about the haves and have-nots? That’s a clear example of the survival of the fittest. Is it unfair? Is it evil? Should we “clip everybody’s wings” to the same size? Maybe, eliminate the free market and all other forms of wealth-building making everybody equal in every way. Perhaps, rid ourselves of our selves to conform to a common standard. I would then propose a single favorite color for all – gray (spelled with an a).

The “fair” people have tried to get rid of unfairness in the past by murdering up to twenty million other people by some accounts. It didn’t work. The “fair” people are, surely, studying how many more they would need to get rid of in order to reach their “fair” objective.

The haves sometimes “prune” the have-nots and vice versa.

I don’t blame the haves for the ills of the have-nots because I am not deserving of same, myself being more of a have than someone else. More importantly, I don’t view people as being expendable, which prevents inhumane urges. That’s a fair start.

Free enterprise makes for the fairest living even if it isn’t much to most. Prior to the rise of capitalism, things have been much worse. We haven’t come up with anything better, yet. That’s the long and short of it.

Fairness is fleeting.

Capitalism isn’t fair. Communism isn’t fair. Socialism isn’t fair. Democracy isn’t fair. What’s fair?

Are we even fair ourselves? Nope.

Will we ever be fair? Not likely. Not so that everybody will think it’s fair.

Do we keep trying? Sure.

There’s just one thing. It’s worth fighting for fairness and survival under the sun so long as we only blame ourselves for living in darkness.

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