Sarah - "That's not fair!"
Jareth - "You say that so often, one wonders what your basis for comparison is!"
--Jim Hensons "Labyrinth"
I was watching this movie recently and it got me thinking about the many uses of the word "Fair" in todays society and whether or not that word is correctly used in those contexts.
I was reminded of an art exhibition some years ago that was open to the public for submissions, the theme was "Religion" and the rules were clearly stated that no-one would be denied submission provided they could cover the fee and their art work was nothing obscene or intentionally offensive.
A reviewer of the exhibition had made an odd comment, at least I found it odd, in that minority faiths were not given "fair" representation...
Fair?
Yes there were an abundance of crosses and other Christian artworks, but representations of other world faiths were far from absent. Again I remind you that no one was denied submission based on their particular creed.. so how was this not "fair"?
Her argument was based on numbers, by far the Christian artwork outnumbered the other works but this was due to Christians being in the majority in the community, not any sort of favoritism.
We see this use of the word "Fair" in politics as well, with the same cause.
The majority rules under any democratically based system, even in an elected republic (as the United States is) this is the case. This leads some representatives of minority groups to cry that the majority is some how 'unfair'.
Let's look at this proverbially, can 50 speak with the voice of 5,000? Of course not, that does not mean the 50 are Wrong, simply that their voice is a small one compared to the 5,000.
What then would be 'fair'? Though the voice of the 50 is small it is not blocked, should the 5,000 perhaps be made to whisper? Again of course not, that would be as wrong as totally silencing the 50 would be.
What then is the answer, how can the minority ever have any reasonable sort of representation?
Well, I'll tell you a secret about majorities, one the founding fathers of The United States knew well....
Majorities change all the time.
What is a majority in one generation may well be a minority in the next (for instance females now out number males in the US, caucasians are losing the lead as well as far as population is concerned ). With this changing of the guard happening naturally in an almost clockwork manner, Everyone will and does get their turn at bat.
What could be more "fair" than that?