Fairness
Being fair to each other. Simple words that are the the cornerstone of human rights and one of the pillars of democracy. I wonder how many really understand these words.
I believe that I have a rough idea , however when I start to unravel the threads of that idea I land up with more questions than answers. Let me elaborate.
The concept of fairness is fundamentally fluffy in my opinion- the reason is quite simple. Fairness means that you would apply judgement ( a mental argument) to deciding if a person’s action falls within particular limits that you feel is appropriate based on your ethics and morality; consequently we say that we are fair in passing judgement and the end result is that we have acted fairly. Do you see the flaw ? The judgement is based on your rules , on your point of view.
To do unto others as you would have others do unto you, rides on the premise that the ethics and morals are the same. What happens then when unknown to you, your ethics and morals are not the same as the one you pass judgement on ? Historians know this and have come up with a phrase that captures this dilemma well “one mans freedom fighter is another mans terrorist”. Great way to kick the can down the road and it might work when you think in terms of historical timelines. It sure doesn’t work in everyday life - the life where everyone at almost every instance is passing judgement thinking that they are being fair.
Walk a mile in my shoes; another brilliant argument in favour of the idea of fairness- it assumes that one would try to understand the situation from the point of view of the person being judged. Just understand? Surely that is not enough for one would try to understand the point of view by applying ones own morality and ethical standards. Damn stuck again.
The question then is how does one understand the ethics and the morality of another person before passing snap judgement. Yes I know we can assume that some morals are the same - but then you don’t know which , and any assumption and judgement based on that assumption would be wrong.
I believe that I am fair in my interactions because I assume that the ethics and morals might be more than 50% the same . There is no guarantee and consequently fairness is based on probability- I.e it is fluffy.
Maybe there is something that I still need to learn. Something so simple that I have overlooked it. Till then I will continue to believe that more often than not I am fair.
What about you ?
C
Being Fair and Balanced in my work environment and leadership has always been important to me, and it's one of the 3 published guiding principles of our company rules of leadership. However, it's also a test. "Fair and Balanced" is easy to say, but in truth it is nearly impossible to do. I knew that one of my up and coming leaders was ready for greater responsibility when they came to me asking about the Fair and Balanced rule and said something to the effect of "it's almost impossible to do this". And they are right. Fair is a choice based on a human interpretation of a situation and set of facts or perceived facts. By definition, no human can know everything, therefore mathematically no human can be truly 'fair'. We are limited to our knowledge, and more importantly our understanding of that knowledge. So we can only be as fair as our limited understand and the circumstances allow. In the workplace for example there can be a very different outcome to a situation if you are trying to be 'fair' to the employee, vs 'fair' to the company, vs 'fair' to the customer, vs 'fair' to the board of directors or shareholders. The reality for most of us, most of the time, is that fairness is in the eye of the beholder, and for most people that means that 'fairness' has to be measured in one's own heart and mind only. And for the average person that means 'fair' is based on the common or majority rule. The question therefore is: where is your heart and mind vs the common or majority rule?
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