Life isn't fair.

And you know what?

It can't be.

Here's the problem.

The word fair doesn't mean justice or equity or indeed anything very specific.

Instead, it's become a sort of all-purpose statement of moral superiority.

Superiority tinged paradoxically with victimhood.

Now, fairness does have an exact meaning in certain contexts.

For example, if we're playing a game, fairness means that the rules should be applied impartially.

When we're kids and our parents and teachers set the rules,

the word still has that essential meaning.

It's a young person's way of demanding what we might call equality before the law.

But as we get older, the word becomes more of a whine.

In the mouth of a teenager, trust me on this,

it's not fair means more often than not,

you won't let me do something I want.

In recent years, though, something odd has happened.

Adults have started using the word in much the same way that teenagers do.

More than in any previous generation,

people today retain their teenage sense of self-centeredness.

They use it's not fair as a catch-all complaint,

as an assertion of wounded entitlement.

...