Reality Check!! FAIR or UNFAIR!?!?!

Fair is the worst thing we are taught in kindergarten. Fair is a four-letter word and it fucks us up for life. We should be taught from an early age that there is no organic "fairness" to life. And that to even survive we have to maximize whatever meager scraps we do posses and get over the fact that the person sitting next to us might get promoted first, might marry somebody better, and probably has a grandmother who will leave him more money. Being taught that fairness matters cripples us. It forces us to wait for the scales to be adjusted. It makes us miss opportunities we should snatch before somebody else does. And, worst of all, it sets us up for a life of deep disappointment.

Augusten Burroughs
Details Magazine
March 2008