Is a fair and equal society even possible?

 

A fair and equal society, is a concept we hear people talk about all the time, there are thousands of blog posts, podcasts, and YouTube videos on the subject, but what does it actually mean?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, fairness means “Impartial and just treatment or behavior without favoritism or discrimination” and equal or rather in this case equality is “The state of being equal, especially in status, rights or opportunities”.

Now with those two definitions in mind, does the society we live in look anything like a fair and equal one? It depends on who you ask, if you ask someone who has a privileged life, for example, someone who doesn't have to deal with adversity in their life, no racism, no sexism, no homophobia, trans-phobia, poverty, disability or class-ism, there will be the odd one or two that say that life inst fair to them, but for the majority, they would say that their life is pretty sweet.

In fact if you are a straight white middle age middle class cis gendered man on 100k a year, congratulations, you won the lottery there mate, you would be the last person they come for if things go south, except, your not as far up the tree as you think you are, you see nobody wants to hear your opinions on societies issues, nothing personal, but there are too many of you that make the laws that we all live by, if you're rich, how can you make decisions for the poor, if your straight cis gendered, how can you make laws concerning the LGBTQ community I could go on.

You see, society isn't fair, its not fair to anyone if you look at the literal meaning, and that is where equality comes into play, if we all have an equal crack of the whip, there is more chance of a fair and equal outcome, but is it fair to offer better opportunities to people from a disadvantaged background, than those perceived to have a more privileged start in life? Probably not, but it is equal.

You see there are so many people who resent programs that help one demographic and not another, there are programs set up to help inner city ethnic minorities to get help with education, business start ups, and better housing, is it fair that there is no help for white people from the comfortable suburbs? No, but it does make for an equal start, and I'm afraid that those who are shouting its not fair that these people get everything, maybe its because you have already got everything you need.

Help for people starting out, should be fair, you might on paper have all the markers for privilege that are possible, but still have trouble getting ahead in life, now I could tell you to “pull yourself up by your boot straps, but that doesn't work for everyone, the problem with trying to create a fair society is that some people are going to get more help than others, thus rendering the whole concept of fairness as unfair.

But something has to be done in order to get everyone to start the race on a level footing, if you are a kid from a privileged background, the chances are that you are starting on the blocks, education paid for, an allowance, a warm clean home with a well stocked fridge, all you have to do to succeed is work hard and don't fuck up.

But if you are starting at the opposite end of the scale, you are starting way back from the start line, you need to get money for books, and other costs associated with education, probably take on a part time job to pay for it and to be able to eat, and while you are at work trying to keep your head above water, you don't have the time to study like your counterpart at the other end of the scale, maybe when you do get to study, its hard to concentrate when its cold, and you only had one meal today.

Equality of opportunity is another matter, giving someone the same opportunities as everyone else is the best way to get anywhere near a fair society, helping people move up a little to be on the same starting blocks as everyone else, means that everyone can get ahead on their merits, not based on what their parents own, and if anyone fails to take advantage of that little boost, then its on them that they don't succeed, but at least they had the opportunity.

There are a lot of so called journalists, who have made their whole career from equality and fairness, journalists who take one side or the other, and to be honest it doesn't matter which side they are on, they both have the same agenda, make me famous or make me infamous, to them it's the same thing, the problem is, rather than exploring the facts of the situation society is in, they would rather explore what people think and what they are scared of, so they can use fear to motivate people, and the possibilities of what is achievable when you have a readership that is scared and looking for someone to blame are endless, and these bad actors, get all the attention from social media due to the sheer volume of traffic they create with click bait headlines, and sensationalist language, when a journalist makes wild claims about say immigration, yes we all now have a platform to call them out, and their supporters will then argue back and so it goes, one tweet, 2000 likes,135 replies, and possibly worst of all, 97 retweets, the algorithm rewards sensationalist opinion, so what do you think is going to happen, they are going to get even more sensational with their tweets, gather more support and get even more likes, comments and retweets, its a cycle that will continue until either the algorithm changes, or people change, and I can't see either happening any time soon.

So should we give up on having a fair society? No, but we should have more emphasis on equality of opportunity, than trying to make a lovely fluffy everyone is nice to everyone society, because it will never happen while being a arsehole is rewarded, and let's be honest, that is one thing that will never change.

Photo by Polina Kovaleva: https://www.pexels.com/photo/letter-cubes-on-brown-background-6185306/