The Lameness of the Phrase "Life's Not Fair"

For as long as I can remember I have despised the phrase "Life's not fair."

This is not because every last conceivable usage of the phrase is entirely without truth. Ontologically speaking there certainly seems to be nothing in the structure of reality that guarantees fairness.

Rather the problem is that the statement is usually irrelevant to the situation at hand and insulting to the intelligence of the person to whom it is spoken.

Usually when people say "Life's not fair" the subject under discussion is not ontology. Rather we are far more likely to be seeing an authority figure defend the arbitrary exercise of their will. They could have opted to act fairly in this situation. But instead they opted to act unfairly, most often because this was convenient for them.

The issue in this case was not "Life," but their use--typically their indefensibly self-serving misuse and abuse--of their power. Trying to change the subject from practical, immediate, realities to the higher planes of philosophy, in this case as in so many others (as with those evading responsibility by hiding in epistemological ambiguity), is an unbelievably shabby move absolutely deserving of contempt.