Kwame Anthony Appiah on how seriously people take the notion of fairness and how intuitions about what is fair can get us into difficulty:
We may change our minds about what's truly just, but not about how much fairness matters. As faltering as our intuitions about fairness in public policy are, success comes to the politician who can enlist them effectively. It's not enough to craft good policies, you have to convince people that they're wise and just. Some individuals, for reasons we grasp only dimly, are a lot better at that than others, however smart, engaged and sensible. Almost doesn't seem fair, does it?Maybe the academic study of theories of justice should be brought out of the academy a bit more.