On Fairness · 6:25am May 27th, 2022
I don't have a lot I want to say about the Make Your Mark special, but I do have a couple thoughts looking to get out.
One thing Posey said jumped out at me in particular, because it's something I think about sometimes. One of the arguments she deployed against magic was what I refer to as malicious fairness: in this case, that since earth ponies can't use magic, nopony should be allowed to. In this case, it's easy to dismiss since it's clearly solely about bringing others down and advanced out of a personal agenda rather than as an honest principle, but in general malicious fairness need not be so obvious, nor need it be done with ill intent (despite the name I give it). It just needs to detrimental.
It's something I think about because it's one of the ways I worry about society going astray. There are many these days who make a big deal about fairness, and this is certainly not without reason; all else being equal, a fairer society is a more harmonious society, and it works better. That said, there are a significant number of people who seem like they take fairness as an intrinsic good that they'll thus prioritize over other concerns, and I can't help but fear that will lead to bad outcomes. Fairness is only good in that it has beneficial effects on society, and when fairness means taking too much from some people in order to give not enough to others, it's just not worth the cost.
On a completely different note, having formulated some theories of my own since last year, I want to go on record as predicting that the magic crystals were made in honor of Princess Twilight. I believe that they were made by the ponies of Equestria to represent the harmony she inspired in them, though I'm not sure whether I think this happened during her reign or shortly after its end.
I don't yet have a theory about that alicorn at the end, though. I'll get back to you if I think of something I can believe in.
I think Posey is driven by more than just jealousy, she seems to value things staying the same very highly, and its inarguable that the events of the movie have brought significant changes to Maritime Bay, changes Posey has zero say or control over.
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Well, I never said jealousy was her sole motivation . . . but I do see where that would reasonably be taken as implicit in what I wrote.
It is worth explicitly acknowledging that resentment of abilities she doesn't have was not only not her sole motivation but probably not even her primary motivation. As I read her, when she expressed jealousy it was in service to her resistance to change. I think that if she had been given the choice prior to Maretime Bay Day between gaining unicorn or pegasus magic of her own and excluding all such magic from Maretime Bay she would not have found it a very difficult choice.
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Agree completely. We do see her in the shorts actually seem to put in some effort to open up to the changes (like Mane Melody).