From Unfair to Fair - the Four Steps to Filling your Life with Power

Politicians benefit by pretending life is unfair
Life is not fair! complain envious citizens when they see someone with more than they have.

Life should be fair! says the politician, and I can fix the problem. Elect me and I'll ensure the law is changed to make it fair. There are many "useful idiots", in Vladimir Lenin's phrase, who believe their politicians without skeptically exploring to see if their words make any sense, or no sense - nonsense. [Crucial hint: Always investigate what someone has to gain - especially if they want you to believe them without questioning what they say.]

This becomes yet another excuse for government to interfere in the smooth running of the economy. And eliminating inequality becomes yet another impossible goal for government, politicians, and bureaucrats alike.

Public Choice
It's important not to be cynical. But it's equally important to ask yourself if someone trying to persuade you to believe what they say. Is it genuinely in your best interests, or in their own?

Professor James M. Buchanan* of the Cato Institute won the 1986 Nobel prize for Economics by demonstrating that both politicians and government employees are just as venal - mercenary - as everyone else. His Public Choice** analysis conclusively proved that self-interest is not solely for private citizens, exactly the same self-interest is also the primary concern of politicians and public servants.

Even when someone has nothing to gain by your belief, and so may not be spinning the truth, they will naturally put their own best interests first. First come their spouse, their children, and the rest of their family; then come their goals, their ambitions, their friends...

Why does Life seem so Unfair?
Nishant (name disguised) recently asked: Why does life rain the hardest on those who deserve the sun?

I replied that the rain is to strengthen them so troubles worry them less. Iron is far stronger once it becomes steel in the heat of the forge. We all become stronger when we overcome our troubles. [But don’t ask for strength, since what you'll often get is more adverse situations in which you can develop that strength you desire...]

Nishant continued. But it's not fair.

My reply? Life is entirely fair. But you only get this when you understand its context, that it goes round in circles. In life:

1. you judge yourself and your situation at every moment
2. you then choose your next action
3. all actions have consequences, some more unpleasant than others, and
4. "what goes around, comes around"

Karma is the unfolding of all these, especially #2, #3, and #4 ...

Nishant responded by again condemning the unfairness of life. Especially since he hasn't done anything to deserve it.

First we Forget, then we Judge
I replied saying we all forget what we've done in the past and then judge life as unfair. Could you have forgotten any unfair actions? Even if you have done nothing bad at all to anyone in this lifetime, how about in your previous lifetimes?

Nishant then asked why would he be punished?

My last reply. You're judging what's happened as a punishment. Yet your judgment makes you very unhappy, and you'll get very sick inside if you continue. So stop judging. Are you confusing assessment and judgement***, despite the enormous difference between them?

Life is always entirely fair. If you don't understand how and why, this simply means you don't understand - that you lack understanding. What makes life totally fair is that it's just natural law unfolding. Your previous actions have consequences, and then "what goes around, comes around." Karma is simply these unfolding...

Nishant's reply. THANK YOU SO MUCH (capitals in the original)

© Copyright worldwide Cris Baker, www.LifeStrategies.net All rights reserved. Republishing welcomed under Creative Commons noncommercial no derivatives license preserving all links intact, so please +1 and share this widely!

* For more about Professor James M. Buchanan of the Cato Institute, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M._Buchanan

** For more about Public Choice which conclusively proved that self-interest is the primary concern of all politicians and public servants, just as it is for private citizens. see: http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PublicChoice.html

Food for Thought
“Life in general has never been even close to fair, so the pretense that the government can make it fair is a valuable and inexhaustible asset to politicians who want to expand government.”

- Dr. Thomas Sowell, African-American economist, University Professor, syndicated columnist, brilliant and prolific academic author