You’re looking for justice, that’s just what you’ll find

The problem is not that life is unfair, but that fairness doesn’t exist.

Look around.

We live in an unjust society, not in a world with impartial and just treatment without favoritism or discrimination. Being a human means accepting that the scales of justice don’t balance simply because we expect them to.

In fact, I find that the more hung up people get on how the world should work, the more they overlook how it does work. The foolish pursuit of a society founded under the inherently flawed premise of equity is a colossal waste of time and energy.

Because fairness cannot be objectively measured like, say, gravity. Gravity exists whether we believe in it or not. We can’t disprove it.

But fairness can be disproved, since fairness is an ideal masquerading as a law. It’s a moral authority that we invented. Anytime we have an experience that doesn’t meet our expectations, we shake our fists to the heavens and say, omg that’s so unfair!

Maybe. Maybe it’s unfair. It’s also possible that we just didn’t get what we wanted, and now we’re angry.

Which is totally fine. It’s normal that we feel cheated and angry, and we should find healthy ways to express those feelings. But the older we get, the more we should prepare ourselves for the fact that reality doesn’t care about our feelings.

Life will keep doing its thing, regardless of our emotional response.

For example, did you ever notice that the only fair results are the ones that coincidentally benefit us the most? Ain’t it convenient that things always seem to be unfair when we lose, but fair when we win?

Imagine watching a grand slam tennis match where the two top seeded players are battling fiercely for five sets. And in a critical point during the tiebreaker, one player nails a baseline shot that’s ruled as out by the judge, which costs her the match.

However, upon closer inspection in video replay, it becomes evident that the ball was in. What are the odds that the losing player would candidly acknowledge the incorrect call, show true sportsmanship, and insist the victory be awarded to their opponent?

The fabric of space time would rip to shreds, swallowing the entire universe in an instant. Because that’s not the world we live in.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the scales of justice balanced simply because we expected them to?