On Fairness

In a faculty meeting, we engaged in a kilometric debate on how a certain policy can maintain fairness in our department’s human ecology. The debate (more or less) ended when Randy David told our chair – “Well, you know Ester, life is never fair.” It’s funny how we debate about issues and craft policies trying to satisfy the highest ideals of fairness and justice, while we all know that life will never be fair. We can never even come close to fairness.

I arrived at this acidly contemplative mood because I recently discovered the emblem of human injustice – Natalie Portman. Sure, we see a lot of attractive personalities, but yin and yang always manage to surface. Angelina Jolie is beautiful, humanitarian and bisexual but she’s still the weird girl who PDA-ed with Billy Bob Thornton. Bill Gates is rich but he looks like Kermit the Frog. Keira Knightley is hot, but her tiny waist can break any time. Such logic does not work on Natalie Portman.

It’s common knowledge that she’s breathtakingly beautiful. Huntsmen of justice may say she might have some disgusting flaw in some important body part, but seeing her in Closer and Star Wars just won’t substantiate that claim. Of course there are other personalities who are equally or even more attractive than her, but what makes her the emblem of human injustice are her achievements. Well, achievements that matter to me. She had a 4.0 GPA in high school which qualified her to Harvard’s psychology program. She’s even OC! She missed Episode 1’s premiere to study for an exam. She published an article in a psychology journal. She’s taking postgrad in Hebrew University. Her idea of promoting a movie is giving lectures in Ivies such as Columbia, where she lectured on political violence for V for Vendetta. And to completely deconstruct my belief in fairness and justice, she dated Gael Garcia Bernal and Adam Levine (Maroon 5).

Ideationally, relativism is the response to values such as fairness and justice. Whose standard of fairness and justice are we basing our judgment on? I have a relatively relaxed standard of fairness. I believe it exists because no one can have it all. But after reading Ms Portman’s biography, my jaw dropped because my own standard is challenged. Someone does have it all. So to people whose idea of fun is castigating other people, now is the best time to put your talents to good use. Help me restore my belief system.