The Trouble with Equality

We are in this world almost daily deluged with calls for equality. It all sounds so good, and everyone seems to want it. But there's only one problem with it.

We are not, any of us, really equal.

This is not to say that we are not political equals. Yet even that phrase leaves a bit of uncertainty: we are only equal because my vote should count as much as yours. That doesn't strike us as equality. It strikes us as justice.

In the same manner, as we have employed this tactic when talking about freedom, education, peace, and so forth, so too do we find that we must apply it to any calls for equality. We need to ask what the supporters of equality really mean. Because any absolute and final equality of circumstances must actually be something which applies only in very, very few cases. Take equal pay for equal work, for example. Notice that we are asking a question whose answer only applies to very strict and definite circumstances. A woman cancer doctor, 50 years old, with 20 years of practice, who graduated from the same schools with the same grades as a complimentary male cancer specialist in the same place of work, and with the same proficiency of work, should get the same pay. No rational mind would argue otherwise. But the case is so limited that only one answer is truly right anyway.

As to the other facet of the argument, well, calls for equality must ring hollow because, again, we are not equal. A brain surgeon isn't equal to a plumber, no matter how much more we want the latter when the faucet breaks or the basement floods, and no matter which is male or female. As a matter of decency, we should not automatically look well on the surgeon nor ill on the plumber. But yet again, that's a point about justice, not equality.

We could refine the case further, but we trust the point is made. When we are demanding equality we are often (if not in fact always) demanding justice. We are asking that we be treated rightly and properly in light of the circumstances which surround us. We are not asking for equality. We are asking for justice.

So, and we are sure many people may have grown tired of us asking yet we must, when you demand equality, do you really want that? If so, how? Why? For we need to remember that the only sure way to make folks equal is downward, to the where no one is above the lowest common denominator.

That the average person means equality in the sense of true justice we don't doubt. Still, it is when we use terms wrongly that we have the greatest troubles. It is then when the radical fringe of any given group may take the day. Yet when we clarify our thoughts, when we strive to end misunderstanding by calling things what they are, then, indeed, justice wins out. Isn't that what we really want?

Following Up

Yesterday, we published a little blurb here about how the world views the United States. It was met with significant reaction, some pro, some con, as was expected. On that front, it deserves something of a public response.

For starters, we are not advocating a go it alone attitude. Unless that is our only option. If the legitimate interests of the USA are at risk, then we should act to protect if absolutely no one else is with us. Period.

We have tried so far as possible to build consensus before taking major actions anyway. It should be noted that in President Bush's brilliant speech to the UN before we invaded Iraq, he put forth the case that the world had in fact already authorized action against that (at the time) rogue nation. It was time to put up or shut up, and he placed the United Nations right where he should have: as a meaningless and benign body if it will not act on what it says. Likewise we looked for consensus in Afghanistan and Kuwait before sending in the troops. We have not been unmindful of world opinion. When the US gets accused of disregarding the rest of the world, we need to remember those things.

A further question is that of whether we look at the rest of the nations as equals. Said bluntly, it is dangerous to look at another nation as our moral equal simply and merely because it is another nation. We are morally superior to the despots of Iran, China, and North Korea. Even many of our brother countries recognize this; it isn't as though Washington has been going it alone against Irani and North Korean nuclear programs. As individuals must judge the actions of other individuals in regards to how they might affect them, so do nations have the obligation to judge the actions and intentions of other nations and act accordingly.

There is no automatic, universal, and inviolate equality among nations. Failure to recognize this is a failure to serve our own people, or the greater good of the world at large.