Coping with power and fairness

"Equality is not a concept. It is not something we should be striving for. It is a necessity. Equality is like gravity. We need it to stand on this earth as men and women. The hatred that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition. It is life out of balance, and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who is, confronted with it. We need equality."

~ Joseph Hill. "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, film and television producer, director, comic book author, composer, and actor.

Not everyone has power. Not everyone is powerful. Not everyone powerful has the ability to use power with fairness. To hold power, and to hold it firmly and for long, power needs to be tempered with merciful fairness. For that, one needs wisdom. Without it, power has the potential to create fear; to corrupt; to foster violence; to make one believe, might is right; to make one lose his head and good sense. In its indulgence, a gentle creature can easily turn into a great barbarian, and often forget fairness and justice; the quality of compassion.

Those who are possessed of power without insight begin to believe that power without abuse, loses its charm. They imprudently forget that throughout the ages, power without responsibility and fairness is the prerogative of the harlot; that, without justice, courage is weak.

It is true that at times justice without power can become inefficient and inadequate; but it is equally true that power without justice, fairness, and compassion, is tyranny. We know not with any accuracy as to when, how, and under what circumstances man took his first step in his journey into the future. But how so ever a start it may have been in the prevailing conditions of the time and age; it is certain that with his first step, man went forth fully filled with desires, needs, and ambitions. As humanity grew in numbers, and needs were difficult to come by, urges and desires gave rise to selfishness; thoughts of mine, and yours arose.

Justice

The stronger snatched from the weaker; might is right was the rule of the day; power and the powerful was born.

However, as the weaker majority grew in numbers, they began to find strength in collectivity and began to protect the interests of the weaker section. With it evolved righteousness and a sense of justice and fairness. A people meek and humble, divested of insight and knowledge, imbibed with foolishness and fear of all things known and unknown will permit a handful to control power and wealth. They oblige them and even lay down their life to help, and allow the few - always a small and selfish gang - to oppress them, their children, and fellow denizens.

Money, caste, rituals, traditions, beliefs, and superstitions all conspire together to crush the humble hordes; supine and suppliant; the silent majority; into accepting oppression meekly, timidly, and tamely. It is true that the world today, runs on individuals and countries pursuing their separate interests, mostly motivated by greed and plunder. I grant that society, as structured these days, is greed based and not need based. In fact, such is the vehemence of greed that if you put the greedy in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there would be a shortage of sand in the Desert. Yet the large majority aid, and abide silently for the few to fulfil their greed.

Is it due to absence of a more just way of living? Is it because, being docile and humble; gentle and harmless; mild and modest; patient and peaceful; unpretentious and yielding; are no more the symbol of grace and greatness? Simplicity used to be the nature of great souls.

It does not appear to be so any more because the worth of simplicity is lost on selfish men of gluttony; and helps such savage amongst men to wield power. Perhaps it is the foolishness of youth, or an inner urge that is intent on ruin: whichever it is, it propels them on the path less travelled by men of reason. They are hungry for power, come what may. The greed for power is so great that they refuse to learn, to glean a few bits of wisdom from those who have paved the path so many others now aspire to travel. That the sense to wield it with the sense of fairness is so less, that their path becomes, clouded by the failure of intellect, a road that leads to rotten ends.

Dignity

We all know that life is not fair; and that it will not be, until in our hearts we learn to treat all people with fairness and dignity, regardless of their race, religion, language, colour, gender, and beliefs. We realise not that people appear to us according to the light we throw upon them from our own minds. Thus, fairness means treating people equitably, without bias or partiality.

It means actively working to set aside self-interest or group loyalty. In our own way, each of us does wield power, to a greater or lesser degree as befitting our station in society. Hence, it becomes incumbent upon each of us, in our day-to-day life, to ensure goodness and fairness.

However, beware: being good is easy, what is difficult is being just.

Impartiality is a key part of fairness. Being impartial does not mean having no biases; rather it means knowing what those biases are, striving to set them aside, and requesting outside perspective; if and when, needed. While being inspired by the ideal of justice, fairness is not sameness or always following the letter of the law. Fairness makes room for us to generate solutions and compromises based on reason and circumstance. Fairness does not mean everyone gets the same, it means everyone gets what they need.

Hunger makes a thief of any man, including the hungry for power. A man can counterfeit love, he can counterfeit faith, he can counterfeit hope and all the other graces, but it is very difficult to counterfeit humility.

Thus, when power is distanced from modesty; when power does not reach its purpose and vigour; when the charge, effect, or result of power is detrimental to society; it means, power is not being used with the required sense of fairness. Of course, it is foolish to expect fairness from the power hungry. To do so is like expecting a leopard to, not attack you because you are a vegetarian.

If the watchword of the people be honesty, decency, and common-sense; the powerful will be forced to use power, with fairness.

Hence, in the ultimate analysis, the common fate of a people rests in the hands of the commoners. However, unfortunately for them: common sense is not that common amongst commoners. Thus, the powerful remain free to do as they wish: The result is that they hide their wisdom more than their follies.

See you this day next week. Until then, keep thinking; keep laughing. Life is mostly about these two activities.

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