Life Isn’t Fucking Fair – Deal With It
If life were fair…
You would now be sharing your internet connection with 2 other people.
You would only own ⅙ of a car, which could get crowded on the drive to work.
You would earn less than $10,000 per annum, so probably wouldn’t be reading this blog post because it’s doubtful you could afford a computer.
And anyway, it may not be your turn as the two other people sharing your Internet connection probably don’t want to listen to me wittering on.
At least once per week you would have to go without any food and several times per year you would be drinking water that could be potentially detrimental to your health.
If you’re reading this in the western world and relatively fit, your life expectancy would suddenly be cut by about 10 years as you would be exposed to the kind of diseases that are usually confined to the third world.
Good people wouldn’t die young in terrible circumstances as happens every single day of the year.
Bad people wouldn’t live long healthy and prosperous lives.
China would give Tibet back to the The Dalai Lama the robbing bastards.
The 2% would not own more than the 98%.
A hard days work would earn a hard days pay.
People wouldn’t decide to settle arguments with guns, knives or anything else that can cause physical, or even emotional, harm.
Nobody would ever be given the credit for work done by others.
There wouldn’t be incompetent idiots managing teams of competent people because they knew hot to ‘play the system’.
Big companies wouldn’t constantly lie to you (pick any company by the way, they all lie).
They also wouldn’t be allowed to use highly complex sales techniques designed to manipulate your cognitive biases into buying things you don’t need.
You would never be judged on your looks, sexuality, religion or race.
Of course I could go on and on, but what is it you want?
Do you want a world that is fair, but involves you potentially sacrificing your health and a good proportion of your wealth and quality of life?
Would you be prepared to accept that for a world that is just in other aspects?
I doubt it.
People complain a lot about some mundane shit – me included by the way.
It wasn’t fair that I booked the NFL Sunday Ticket with DirecTv for the 9th consecutive year and yet it wouldn’t let me watch the Rams game yesterday, saying I wasn’t subscribed.
So I paid $49 presuming I could get it refunded today if I was prepared to allocate 30 minutes to get to speak to a human at DirecTv.
Then the Rams sucked as usual and I had to sit through 4 hours of abject misery complaining that life isn’t fair for Rams fans – well not really, but I wasn’t a happy bunny..
Life has never been fair, it isn’t fair now and it never will be fair.
Like me, you need to get the fuck over it and move on because otherwise you’re just a victim.
And one final thing.
Life sure wasn’t fucking fair to Scott Dinsmore as the 33 year-old lost his life climbing Kilimanjaro on 12th September.
His site was called ‘Live Your Legend‘ and was one of the few self development blogs I followed.
I never met the guy (although I wish I had), but my deepest condolences go out to his wife and family.
Image Courtesy of World Bank Photo Collection
I think the key piece to this post is the simple fact that it draws our attention to all the advantages that some of us are lucky to have. Although in all honesty it probably won’t stop me from complaining when I feel like someone was promoted at work that doesn’t deserve it, or the fact that the idiot driver ahead of me didn’t use his turn signal and messed up the flow of traffic, it does make me take time to think about how minimal my problems are in the broad scope of the world. It really brings my egocentrism view to light.
When we say deal with it, I like to think make the best of it. My life will never completely resemble someone else’s life but it doesn’t mean I can’t do my best to make the best of it. With a little bit less complaining, a few more smiles, and encouragement we can make a difference in our immediate community. As that grows we can take the change broader.
Chrislyn, I think you’re probably right about ‘make the most of it’ ‘rather than ‘deal with it’.
And you’re right, I still shake my head in disbelief and get wound up by terrible drivers. And I’m pretty sure Orlando is the capital city of the world when it comes to people not using their indicators, tailgating and driving like total dicks! ;)
Tim, I’ve been quite busy these past few weeks.
And I just learned about Scott’s passing, here.
Really shocked. And sad.
I’m a bit of a wanderer. Scott and I haven’t met, but he was one of the people who seemed to tell me to just keep my passions burning, through his unique ways, his words, his blog.
Ugh.
Life indeed isn’t fair. And yeah, we just deal with it.
But I’ll always be thankful for everything (despite all the unfairness, which I don’t seem to care about anyway).
Thanks, Tim, for what you do.
You’re welcome Ethan.
And I think it’s weird that we feel bad for the passing of somebody we have never even met.
Weird in a good way I mean because we don’t get upset about self absorbed assholes shuffling off this mortal coil ;)
Hi Tim, great description – life is all the things you describe in your post. And the effing things, too. And many more. Maybe life is so complicated because no-one knows what it is. (Everybody knows, but no-one agrees – same thing) Does it matter? As you say, it doesn’t matter a Dickie bird. When it comes to life, I totally agree, the only way is to deal with it.
Yep! Are choices are somewhat limited. Deal with or…..er…….deal with it! ;)
I’m not sure of the point you’re try to get at, Tim. What does “deal with it” mean? Accept it? Try to change it? I suppose it will mean different things for different people. Yes, this would be hard: “Do you want a world that is fair, but involves you potentially sacrificing your health and a good proportion of your wealth and quality of life?” But why not? Maybe quality of life is about something more than about having a computer. Maybe we would feel more connection then and our quality of life would soar far higher and eliminate all the personal cutting, addiction, and other sorrows we endure if the richer parts of the world. It’s interesting to consider and I’m so glad you wrote this.
It means accept it Sandra and don’t be a victim.
I gave so many examples purely because I know some will resonate with some people and not others and vice versa.