Equality vs. Fairness

America was founded on principles of equality. The Declaration of Independence asserts, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Of course, any American and probably most of the world knows this, so why do I bring it up here? Because I wonder if we hear the words and parrot them back to one another without truly understanding what they mean. I think they have become an elegant sound-byte for us, rather than words that shape our worldview.

These days we are all about "fairness," not equality. When we complain that it's "not fair," we are really worried about how to tear someone else down, rather than seeking ways to build ourselves up. Witness:

• "it's not fair" that bad things happen to me and not to others
• misery loves company
• so-and-so "gets all the breaks"
• well, why shouldn't Bill Gates pay higher taxes, after all he can afford it!
  

We are informed by our notions of what is fair, not by the words of the Declaration of Independence. We want to play God and take from those who have to those we think, for whatever reason, deserve it (usually ourselves). Equality, the kind written into the Declaration and Constitution, is about the dignity of persons. Equality, according to the nation's Founders, is about setting people up to provide for themselves, rewarding people when they do succeed and helping them out when they fall. Fairness is about Socialist Utopian Dreams, not a fundamental respect for the human person.

And fairness, as we demand it today, was a foreign concept to God's people throughout biblical times. Concerns of justice, mercy, and love pervade the scriptural witness, but there is nothing of this kind of fairness. And no wonder! Our ideas of fairness are little more than adolescent fits about the way the world is. We want to judge, taking that decision away from the Sovereign Creator of the Universe. We demand free choice, and then we demand to be free of any consequences which are naturally tied to that choice. Original sin in the Garden of Eden all over again!

It is this fundamental confusion of fairness with equality and, more broadly and more sinister, a confusion between what is fair with what is right, that has led to the twentieth-century drifting from the ideals of America's founding and caused many of the present-day issues with which we struggle. It is an unraveling of some of this confusion that we hope to accomplish here on this blog. Guided by the overarching thesis of The Governance Imperative, Kelly and I seek to discuss and analyze questions of politics, constitutionalism, and general issues -- both historical and present-day -- through the lens of this "governance paradigm." The nature of the tension between what is right vs. what is fair is rooted in areas like epistemology, philosophy, and religion, so the occasional foray into these areas should not come as a shock or a surprise.

This is an open conversation, so jump in with your opinions or feedback through the Comments section.