Sunday, October 16, 2011

What counts as "Fairness"?


Saw this at Ben and Jerry's Chunk Fest 2011, and was struck by the thought that some people (who would otherwise support Ben and Jerry's goals) would disagree with all four definitions of Fairness here:

"Fairness is being judged by your inside not your outside" - the moment you slam someone for racial or gender "Privilege", you are judging someone by his outside, not his inside
"Fairness is respecting and listening to opposing views" - in the quest to weed out "bigotry", those you disagree with can be labelled bigots, trolls or assholes
"Fairness is enjoying the fruits of your labor" - if you hold that inequality is inherently wrong both in outcome and in the way it came about (whether through differential endowments or structural inequalities), you can hold that most people are not entitled to the fruits of their labour
"Fairness is justice for all, not equality" - some people hold that inequality of results is inherently unjust

It must be noted that these four definitions come from Power 98 DJs, though, and not from BJ.
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