SAT essay | impartiality

Humankind possesses an unmistakable drive to seek truth, and though the human mind is clearly the greatest tangible source of ingenuity and innovation in this world, objective truth has yet to be found. A significant contributor to this sobering reality is that one truth cannot be determined by two parties with directly conflicting ideologies; there is simply no middle ground or compromise where ultimate truth can be found. Accordingly, any quest for accomplishment or discovery conducted by a person who is fundamentally biased in one direction is doomed for failure. Truth cannot be realized by a flawed person looking inside of himself, but only by a flawless entity - that is, God - who can remain impartial to a degree that no human could hope to reach.

This seemingly heady situation is played out time and time again in my own school, a small concentration of passionate students whose exuberance in the classroom often grows exponentially in the field of sports. Located in Charlotte, NC, my school serves as a divided ground between the fans of Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill athletic programs. As a Carolina fan myself, I enjoy engaging a Duke supporter in playful yet presentable arguments debating the age-old question of "Whose team is the best?" Yet my arguments' validity suffers without exception due to my own bias favoring the Tar Heels. Far from impartiality, I disqualify myself from the possibility of participating in a logical debate simply because I intrinsically view UNC Chapel Hill as representative of me personally, and Duke, conversely, as a sworn enemy of my existence.

On a more global level, the value of impartiality stands out in the arena of news broadcasting. CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and various other American outlets are consistently regarded as biased toward either the political left or right, as liberal or conservative with remarkably little grey area. This natural bias likely arises in the producers and reporters of these networks because of their own political views as American citizens. For that reason, it seems rather unsurprising that the most objective source on American affairs, by consensus, is the British conglomerate BBC.

While, as humans, it is our own nature to seek truth and make discoveries of it in life, it is also our nature to associate ourselves with organizations or viewpoints and allow those viewpoints to characterize us as people. This intrinsic and subconscious drive to be biased is what acts as the ultimate stumbling block for objective decision making.