FBXL Social

Any sustainable overarching philosophy requires balancing many opposing but necessary factors. Fairness is opposed to merit because merit isn't fair but both are practically speaking mandatory. Individualism and collectivism. Law and Liberty. Teleological and deontological ethics. Flexibility and toughness. Purity and diversity.

Paradoxically, while fairness and merit are in opposition, they (like some of the things I listed above) aren't necessarily entirely opposite. Merit is often considered more fair a measure than something more arbitrary like purity or authority not derived from merit.

The interesting thing is that the fact that any of these factors being absolute would result in atrocity is an easy path to discredit any of them, but that's a mistake. The fact that a value being held absolutely would lead to atrocity doesn't mean that it is a discredited value. It only means that it can't stand alone.
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