Does fairness stand a chance?
Are you fair? Or do you just like to think you
are? Does fairness have a place in areas that are very competitive such as politics and business? Can fairness be used to describe a particular attitude towards one's
opponent? Do you have rivals? Do you respect them as partners? Does fairness as a principle stand any chance whatsoever of prevailing in a society where gaining a competitive edge and breaking the rules is done intentionally on a regular
basis?
What is fairness? Fairness is used to cover a wide range of meanings from
beauty, justness, politeness, honesty, directness, frankness, peacefulness and
being dignified to gentleness, even-handedness and impartiality. Those with a sense of fairness stick to the written and unwritten
rules, understand what it means to have good manners, to be tactful and to respect customs and
practices. Where there's fairness, sincerity, love of justice and courage of one's own convictions will not be far
away. Fairness promotes tolerance and harmony and the will to treat an opponent
fairly.
But fairness has rivals: cunning and trickery, deception and
deceit. Faced with tough competition and situations in which the gloves are clearly off and
it's all about being number one, it's tempting to turn your back on fairness, to break the rules here and there and to try to use this to one's own
advantage. Greed and pressure to succeed leave no room for the sprit of fair
play. In these situations, fair play becomes a luxury and nothing more than a wild
dream.
Although fairness refers to acting properly in everyday life, it has become more and more associated with sporting
competition. A large number of fair-play campaigns have been established in
sport. (...). According to the dictionary of sporting ethics, "fairness is demonstrated by the efforts of those participating in a competition consciously to stick to the rules even under difficult
circumstances."
Fairness comes first. Does fairness come first? The English
author, George Orwell, wrote in 1948: "Serious sport has nothing to do with
fair play. Hard competition is associated with hate, jealousy, showing off and disregarding all the
rules." Indeed, you don't have to look far to prove this point. Take a typical Saturday Premiership game for
example. The ball hasn't crossed the line, but the referee blows for a goal. It would be easy for the striker to tell the referee that it wasn't a
goal. But the striker doesn't. Take the football manager that tells his defender to make sure that his opponent is not sitting a the after-match dining table.
This is nothing more than a thinly veiled appeal for him to take out the opposing
striker. And then, of course, there is the case of one of the world's best footballers using his hand to score a goal in a key World Cup match and then boasting afterwards that it was the "Hand of God". A large number of sports are plagued with attempts by athletes to fill their bodies full of drugs in an attempt to gain an unfair
advantage.
Doping is a word that goes hand in hand with unfairness.
Indeed, the incredibly contradictory term of fair foul is very much a part of football
terminology. And a word such as killer instinct needs little explaining. All these aspects conspire to destroy the fun of the game and turn the opponent into the
enemy.
Is there anything that can be done about this? Philosophers Hans Lenk and the Sports
Sociologist, Gunter A. Pilz, pointed out years ago that it's essential to make sure that fairness is
taught, that it is a cause worthy of support and that it is a concept that is desperately needed in a society on the verge of rack and ruin due to the pressures of
success. They also called for people to learn composure and a more easy manner, which serve in automatically promoting fair play. (...) Only in this way might the following sentence be
disproved: "The first myth about fairness is that it exists at all." In sport as in life.
What is fair? The painter Vincent van Gogh put it like
this: "The aim is to find a place in the sun, without forcing anyone else into the
shade."
[Hans-Albrecht Pflasterer, in: Olympisches Feuer 6/2000, p. 30-31]
Other sections on the subject of fair play:
