Please wipe off your feet before you climb up my back...
I haven’t seen an endangered species list lately, but I’d be willing to bet lunch at the steakhouse that fairness is on it.
You’ll still see the term thrown around a bit, but almost exclusively in “affirmative action” contexts. Mostly, though, you’ll only hear the concept of fairness at issue on elementary school playgrounds and peewee league sports. I reckon most adults are just too self-involved to have any time for such an outmoded idea.
As I have detailed here before, fairness in the workplace (sometimes known as “equity”) is extinct, replaced by the “buddy” network. Fairness in business has gone the way of the horse and buggy—insider trading, raiding employee retirement accounts, and paying exorbitant bonuses to executives while the corporation flounders—all are as common as credit card offers in the mail. Fairness in the courts has been replaced by “bought and paid for ‘justice,’” judicial agendas, and “innocence by technicality.”
Politeness, consideration for others, doing what is right, and the “Golden Rule” have all apparently been replaced by the maxims of “get away with as much as you can,” and “climb on, and over, as many as you can on your way up.”
So, I suppose the last bastion of fairness remains the elementary school classroom. I saw this on a website providing ideas for K-5 teachers:
HOW TO BE A FAIR PERSON
Treat people the way you want to be treated.
Take Turns.
Tell the truth.
Play by the rules.
Think about how your actions will affect others.
Listen to people with an open mind.
Don't blame others for your mistakes.
Don't take advantage of other people.
Don't play favorites.
Imagine how much better this world would be if more of us held ourselves accountable to these simple principles?
You’ll still see the term thrown around a bit, but almost exclusively in “affirmative action” contexts. Mostly, though, you’ll only hear the concept of fairness at issue on elementary school playgrounds and peewee league sports. I reckon most adults are just too self-involved to have any time for such an outmoded idea.
As I have detailed here before, fairness in the workplace (sometimes known as “equity”) is extinct, replaced by the “buddy” network. Fairness in business has gone the way of the horse and buggy—insider trading, raiding employee retirement accounts, and paying exorbitant bonuses to executives while the corporation flounders—all are as common as credit card offers in the mail. Fairness in the courts has been replaced by “bought and paid for ‘justice,’” judicial agendas, and “innocence by technicality.”
Politeness, consideration for others, doing what is right, and the “Golden Rule” have all apparently been replaced by the maxims of “get away with as much as you can,” and “climb on, and over, as many as you can on your way up.”
So, I suppose the last bastion of fairness remains the elementary school classroom. I saw this on a website providing ideas for K-5 teachers:
HOW TO BE A FAIR PERSON
Treat people the way you want to be treated.
Take Turns.
Tell the truth.
Play by the rules.
Think about how your actions will affect others.
Listen to people with an open mind.
Don't blame others for your mistakes.
Don't take advantage of other people.
Don't play favorites.
Imagine how much better this world would be if more of us held ourselves accountable to these simple principles?
posted by Beast7 | 9:50 AM
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2 Comments:
That is too simple and too pricipled.
Kind of along the line of that book "Everything I needed to know about life I learned in Kindergarten", right?
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