Twin

You may argue the Tree of Justice in Eden and the other that Satan showed Adam were all but one plant.

On that, you are wrong.

“Aren’t justice and fairness the same virtue?” You may ask.

No, no, no. For fans of Jin Yong (金庸), justice is Qiu Qianren (裘千仞) in The Legend of Condor Heroes (射鵰英雄傳), while fairness is Qiu Qianzhang (裘千丈) – the younger twin brother who was good at nothing but pretending to be his more successful sibling.

“What’s the difference?”

Simple. Justice means all people have to obey to the same set of rules. Fairness, as it now turns out, has become the pursuit of everyone having the same treatment and benefit. The passing mark of all medical students in the final examination is identical; this is justice. All students should, irrespective to their performance, get the same grade – this is fairness. (Don’t laugh. It really happens. Many courses in the university give only pass-or-fail grading nowadays.)

To go one step further, fairness is not an advanced or modified form of justice. To make sure everyone gets an identical outcome or benefit – irrespective to their effort and performance – inevitably we have to twist the rule applied to individual person, or, in other words, we have to give up justice.

Fairness is, therefore, not only not a virtue – it is a sin.

It is the predecessor of sloth.