You hear a lot about equality these days. People want to be equal. There is always someone else keeping them from being equal. If they could just move whoever is standing in their way, they would be equal.
Then what?
Equality is a concept that deserves a moment of our time. We need to think about this. We know what equality means. All things the same, you get the same chance at a desired outcome as the next person. Fair is fair. If you do more, you should get more. If you do less, you deserve less. If you do the same, you should get the same.
According to whom?
One of the fascinating and necessary topics explored in the studies of morality and ethics is the subject of authority. Who has the authority to determine if equality has been attained? When we discuss difficult untenable topics, like abortion, euthanasia, brain stem research, and the like, who gets to decide who wins each debate?
Who decided that equality was the best outcome, or even if it was something we wanted to pursue? People who are privileged do not complain about the need to be equal. People who have ethnic, religious, political, social, physical and/or economic advantages do not make arguments for why they should have less so others can have more! No. It is always the person who has less that argues the merits of equality in order to get more.
Doesn’t that sound like something else? Doesn’t that sound like competition? If there is such a thing as a Darwinian advantage – a biological advantage that favors some over others – does the quest for equality negate a naturally occurring dissimilarity that was INTENDED to give someone an advantage?
If that is true, then the quest for equality is just an artificial construct, something we invented to justify a struggle for dominance over a perceived adversary. An artificial construct that has no basis in fact – not like survival of the fittest, which is scientifically evident. Rather, equality is just something we made up. It appeals to no authority other than force. Those who believe in equality must secure the power to compel others to agree to the terms. But that isn’t really equality. That is dominance.
For those who seek to achieve equality over those who are perceived to possess unfair advantages, the oppressed must oppress the oppressor; thereby removing the advantage. The tide must turn. The sides must change. The unequal becomes the authority and vanquishes the advantages of their oppressors, and in turn, gains an advantage.
And so on and so forth. People do not walk hand in hand in this life. We all struggle.
Daniel O’Meara was equal. He was a farmer in Ireland. He grew just as many potatoes as his neighbor. Unfortunately, a potato famine wiped out about 25% of the population. Daniel decided to look elsewhere in order to achieve the kind of life he wanted for his wife and twelve children. He moved to Boston. He became an American, but he was never considered an equal by a great number of people. He was Irish! He was certainly given to drink but he raised his family properly and lived a long life.
After Daniel and his wife Mary came to America, they had two more children, for a total of fourteen. The thirteenth was a bookworm – a quiet, introvert with a stiff leg gained from an ice skating accident when at the age of ten a blade severed a tendon. She found her peace in books among thirteen brothers and sisters. She wasn’t treated equal among her brothers. In those days a female child was just another mouth to feed. She was a child that could not make the money needed to buy the food needed to sustain her. She was dependent on someone else. To her father, Daniel, she was just someone else’s wife in the making. Daily, she was left with her mother in the kitchen and deprived of the life teachings that men pass to their sons.
She would not be deterred. She loved to read. She learned in her books that she could become more than an idle child. She eventually earned her Master’s degree. She became a teacher. She achieved her own equality and passed certain life skills to three more children. The first became a lawyer, the second a wealthy engineer and the third a homemaker in the suburbs. They each gained equality. They each achieved a level of dominance over their circumstances; most certainly their Irish heritage, but also they gained a geographic advantage. They were all born in the hills of West Virginia. They had the advantage of being Irish. They had the advantage of being hillbillies. One built airports throughout the world. One became a major contributor to a Republican president. The other worked for an esteemed doctor. They gained their own equality.
And their children did great things as well. The sting of being Irish was long forgotten. None of their children ever ran along the ridges of the hills of West Virginia or wore ragged hand-me-downs. They were all educated and some earned a PHD. They achieved their equality and raised their own children.
Today’s generation
People get confused. They focus on beliefs instead of hard work. Equality is not something you receive from a government program. You do not gain privilege by taking it from someone else. You do not protest what others have so you can destroy what they have in order to gain what you want. Equality is gift wrapped in work. It is a present you give yourself. Whatever you gain in this life, you make for yourself. It may be difficult to understand if you stay focused in the present moment. In order to realize what you have today, you must look at your past. You must measure where you are now based on where you would have been had others not worked to gain an inch, earn a living, raise a family, read a book or otherwise gain a foothold in this competition called life.
If your only understanding of equality is based on your comparison of what advantages others have, you need to look at what it took for them to achieve those advantages before you judge them harshly. Most people are benefactors. We all stand on the shoulders of others. Your quest for equality for others begins with helping them achieve more than their forebears achieved. That is the way dynasties are made. That is where privilege comes from. That is also how you establish equality for yourself.
