Children are often heard complaining to
their parents that “It’s not fair!” Parents, naturally, impart those words of
wisdom we’ve all heard, “Life’s not fair. Get used to it.” Quite true, yet
somehow we never quite end up believing it. Part of us still wants to believe
it, wants the world to reward the fair and punish the wicked, and
subconsciously live as though the world is like that. Yet such a simple belief
causes the greatest cruelty, and has held back much needed progress.
Back in 1966, Mervin Lerner conducted a
series of experiments, whereby a young woman was taking a test, with wrong
answers resulting in electric shocks. This was, of course, fake shocks, but he
let the real subjects of his experiment observe this. To them, a young woman
was being tortured. Some had the option of stopping the torture, while others
were told they could not. Some were told she was paid to undergo this
experiment, while other were told she received no compensation.
At the beginning, most observers were quite
upset – but as those who were unable to stop the torture continued watch, they
started to denigrate the woman’s character, casting her as someone who probably
did something to deserve the torture. When observers were able to stop the
torture, or were told she would be compensated, this did not happen.
Lerner’s research, which has been
replicated since them, revealed a dark truth – most people subscribe to the
Just World hypothesis, as he called it. We want to believe that our actions
will have predictable consequences, that justice will prevail. That good deeds
are rewarded, while bad deeds are punished. That is not the world we live in,
but the need for it to be fair can be so strong we will warp and distort the
facts so that in our minds, it can be. And we destroy what little chance we
have of making the world just by doing so.
We start blaming the victims, since we
think bad things only happen to bad people. Instead of punishing the rapist, we
ask what someone did to be raped. Instead of helping a battered woman, we
accuse her of provoking her husband. Instead of chasing a murderer, we ask what
someone did to deserve being murdered!
The most terrifying fact about the universe
is not that it is hostile, but that it is indifferent. The world cannot ever be
just, but the people can. Yet this will not happen if we do not act ourselves
to make it so! By believing the world is just, that victims deserve their fate,
we try to assuage ourselves that their fate will never befall us – we are good,
after all. We do not empathize with those who need it most, and bestow cruelty
on those who need the very justice we so crave. And yet by doing so, we
ironically make ourselves more vulnerable to the world, as it leaves us
unprepared for the worst life can throw at us.
By believing in a just and fair world,
people stop trying to change the world at all – after all, if the world is
just, why would you need to change society to help those in need? Why help the
poor, when they must have done something to deserve being poor? We here in
Namibia should be particularly sensitive to it, as we face economic
uncertainty, while trying to resolve the conundrum of our far reaching economic
inequality. We struggle with gender-based violence, yet like all our social
ills, we seem to accomplish little.
Then again, a belief in a just world
correlates strongly with religiosity, conservatism, and authoritarianism, three
attributes Namibia scores high on. We can see the just world hypothesis in
action on our social media, and yet we wonder why we as a nation cannot move
forward. The answer is obvious – believing you live in a just world won’t make
it so. If you want to live in a fair world, you need to take action.
While the world may be indifferent, we, as
people, are not. By simply distorting our opinions to reinforce a belief that
the world is already fair, we act in bad faith. Instead of choosing to create a
better world, we turn ourselves into objects at its mercy. Our actions define
us, after all. By being cruel and blaming victims, your actions define you as
cruel, no matter your thoughts. By excusing intolerable actions, you become a
perpetrator and apologist for them – you are implicitly an accomplice. We are
responsible for our inaction. We as a
nation need to choose the kind of people we want to be – and start acting like
it! Only through strong positive actions towards changes we want to see, will
we have the consequences of those changes.
By choosing to act, as a just people in
service to our nation, to our community, we can ignite the bright light of
human virtue that has been sustaining civilization since the dawn of time. By
creating the justice in the world we so desperately seek, we can make the
universe a little less indifferent, as least in our sphere of influence. By not
simply wishing, but by working, we can make the world be as it should be, and
show it what it can be.
After all, as Marcus Cole so memorably put
it, “You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I
thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible
things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take
great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.”
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