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Deki Tshomo
Ms. Pinkston
Great Ideas
15 September 2022
Distinct Similarities about Responses of Unfairness
The question of, 'If everyone says that life is unfair, doesn’t that mean that life is fair?'
has been a crucial question for someone like me because I, myself, don't fully understand the
concept of unfairness. The question is reacting and responding to an important point of what is
life and why we exist, but it has a much deeper value that one can seriously ponder about why
we live with the difficulties and unfairness that we are surrounded by. The concept of unfairness
is very broad and varies person to person including myself. Even when it comes to fairness, life
has its ups which people are benefited by, but to define fairness is to treat others equally that is
right or reasonable. When answering the question if life is unfair, that 'life is actually fair' might
not be what people think at all and instead think about how it's all unfair. Doubts surround the
question that may not provide a clear answer to and why it can be difficult to obtain the same
answer for anyone to state.
Oyetoke Tobi Emmanuel, in his essay "Life is Unfair, Now What" (2019), implies that
life has always been unfair but without the unfairness given, we would have not been given the
advanced technologies and new experiences granted to us today. Emmanuel supports his
implications by stating what unfairness and how "life was not intended for those who try only
once then give up," and by writing the article, he relates to the article by addressing his own
personal experiences. He stated, "You just have to let these feelings pass you by, don’t dwell on
them". His purpose was to convey how unfairness in life affects us in order to move on and be
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mindful of the current situation around you. Emmanuel establishes consistent and
straight-forward facts of life that can be directed towards anyone who is in doubt of what
unfairness means in life. Personal experiences, before and after the author dealt with PTSD, help
illustrate how unfairness could appear whenever in your life and could prove useful when
dealing with the question of i's life unfair'.
Elizabeth Moulder, in her essay "Inequality" (2001), asserts that even after choosing a job
in the medical field doesn't help change the fact that she felt that the world was unfair. Moulder
supports her idea by relating to her personal experience to add that life feels more unfair now due
to her "correcting anything by choosing medicine. I have just added more images to my stack of
bad memories". What she means by 'correcting', she wanted to fix past incidents that made her
feel guilty such as her uncle's death, and secluded too medicine to help others not see or
experience death. Unfortunately, this caused her more suffering due to the amount of deaths and
sorrows from family members in hospitals. Her purpose is for others to see what the reality of
life we live in is continuously putting us in a state of inequality in order to help others 'even out
the odds' and grasp a better fortunate outcome that is a better opportunity in life than hers, if
possible. Moulder establishes a responsive essay that individuals of the same or similar
background can understand the unfair circumstances she's been put through. This could provide
information to how individuals try to change the unfairness that they have been through and
could not change and instead cause more difficulties of the recurring memories of unfairness.
Within the sources, none of them stated an agreement or disagreement but rather a way
that both provide their personal experiences with the responses they made about how unfairness
in life is different for everyone. Both help illustrate their views to where you can say that these
are similar yet can be contrasted a part of what unfairness in life is considered 'fair'. For instance,
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Emmanuel wrote the following article before and after having PTSD. He explains the reasons
why life has to be unfair and that the crisis we face in life are just part of accepting the truth that
"The moment you start thinking about why life is hard for you, that's when you start being unfair
to yourselves" (Emmanuel). There are new experiences to overcome and a chance to learn more
about yourself. Even though he states the truth that people might not start to accept yet, he gives
out some optimistic advice on how to tackle unfairness. On the other hand, Moulder tells her
story about her experience of unfairness and how life feels unfair. She always thought that life is
supposed to be fair and how we're supposed to be treated equally, yet the only thing she got out
of life was inequality. Moulder's past and job altered her views on what unfairness and fairness
meant. Since the only moments in her life felt 'unfair' to her, then she thinks that life, in general,
is considered to be unfair rather than for it to be a part of the 'fairness' that life's supposed to
bring.
The topic of what fairness and unfairness can consist of is an indefinite amount of
answers that surround the question. Everyone's responses to the question is genuinely different
and each has their own detailed understanding of unfairness. The difficulty of answering the
question is how everybody responds to the question because unfairness can vary from person to
person. However, my thinking changed when the sources responded with their own experience.
When Moulder stated hers, I could not help but think about what she conveyed about how she
tried going into med just to see if helping others peoples lives would change anything from her
uncle's death. Unfortunately, not only did she see that going into the medical field didn't work,
more unfairness started to appear in her daily life. I suppose the question of 'If everyone says that
life is unfair, doesn’t that mean that life is fair?' still occurs to me as a question that I need to get
a more genuine understanding of what unfairness means to me and what applies to me as unfair.
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Work Cited:
Emmanuel, O. T. (2021, December 12). Life Is Unfair, Now What? - Oyetoke Tobi Emmanuel.
Medium. Retrieved September 14, 2022, from
https://medium.com/@oyetoketoby80/this-life-is-unfair-why-should-you-437ffc675b20
Moulder, Elizabeth. Inequality - Document - Gale Academic OneFile. 28 July 2001,
go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=j227901&id=GALE|A77276344&v=2.1&it=r&sid=bo
okmark-AONE&asid=f754c4f1.