November 24
Nothing is truly useful that is not also right; and what binds people together is justice.
On Duties (freely rendered)
Listening mode
Nothing is truly useful that is not also right; and what binds people together is justice.
With people you like, fairness hardly stands out. You share fairly because you want to share anyway. A small imbalance is evened out by affection before anyone does the sums.
It gets harder with someone you merely have to get along with, perhaps even someone you find rather tiresome. If a chance of a small advantage turns up there, it seems almost free. After all, there seems to be nothing between you that could come to harm.
Perhaps that is exactly the one connection you have. You don't have to understand each other, and you expect nothing from one another except one thing: that the same rules apply to both of you. This expectation is more sober than liking, but it reaches further. It connects you even with people you would never invite to dinner.
If you break it, you gain something and at the same time damage a certainty you yourself depend on. You too count on someone who can't stand you still not withholding anything from you.
Most of the time you notice none of this. You simply get what is due to you.
