No. 55: Equality, Do We Want It?
June 25th 2010 20:05
All On The Road
Thankfully, ALL MEN ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL. I will explain more as you read further.
From the U.S. Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Even though modern political correctness encourages us to accentuate one phrase, one would be well advised to read the entire sentence and not stop at “created equal” in order to grasp the real meaning. To paraphrase: We have been endowed by our Creator with rights to life, freedom and the personal pursuit of happiness. I submit for this article that happiness = comfort = fulfillment.
As I converse with people on this subject, many seem to miss the point. The sentence is not saying that we are all endowed with the same mentalities, physical attributes and abilities, etc. (Most everyone knows this intrinsically.) It is saying that we should recognize that people born on this planet have been endowed by our Creator to have these rights to opportunities. It is saying we should recognize these rights. We should respect and protect them for everyone.
From birth onward, the human spirit is endowed with an innate compulsion to satisfy primary needs: 1) protect our body and personal space from external attack; 2) obtain life’s necessities (food, water, clothing, shelter). As a society, we should all work together assisting the primary needs of the truly less fortunate among us. A secondary need is comfort.
The first two are obvious, but it's comfort that is the stickler when mixing ourselves up in a populated environment. As a baby, even before we muddled our minds with complex thinking, we sought comfort. This is obvious when we cried for food, water, dirty diapers, lack of attention, etc. (I might mention that this is often the earliest recognizable stage when we began lying by faking real needs simply for attention--but I digress.)
COMFORT comes when we have first satisfied our primary needs, and can then allow our attention to seek fulfillment.
FULFILLMENT comes when we satisfy our needs for personal goal attainment, job completion, recognition and status. This is not society’s responsibility, but the individual’s.
Each of the above is dictated by cultural mores, religious convictions, societal norms and expectations, traditions, heritage and genetics. No two people—even born of the same mother—have all these in common. WE ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL.
If one is honest with oneself, and does not allow political correctness interfering with reality, it becomes clearer that some people are simply better than others at athletics, goal achievement, interpersonal relationships, communication, mental acuity and more. I will never run as fast as Jessie Owens could have. I will never play other sports as well as the greats, nor will I out-think someone with a higher natural I.Q., who has spent his or her lifetime concentrating on physics, astronomy, or other endeavors. This should not stop me from working harder to do better. It is just that I have grown to recognize that some can be better at other things than I.
So, should we expect to bring down those who are better than we are at certain things, so they can be EQUAL to us? Should my status be raised just to EQUAL them without putting forth my personal effort toward educating and training myself for their level or better?
As a people, we spend billions of dollars educating and training people attempting to raise their fulfillment levels. We can, and should, offer everyone an equal access to quality education. If one takes advantage of the educational opportunities offered in most societies, and studies hard toward mastering the subjects, then initial preparations have been done. Barring discrimination or poor motivators (teachers), it is not the society that is responsible whether or not he or she finds fulfillment. It is the individual’s responsibility, and some have proven they can rise above even discrimination and poor motivators.
There are those among us who refuse to apply themselves in school, and/or work, and/or life itself. We will always have the lazy among us. You saw them in classrooms as the ones who broke up the lectures, or those who reported to class without completed homework. You see them at work, during non-breaks, hiding in the ship bilges, under the shade trees or standing around after orders have been given. Is it right that they receive the same rewards as the more committed to the tasks? Should society remove or reduce rewards for those who have applied themselves and attained personal fulfillment, by lowering them economically so that the lazy can be more EQUAL to them?
As a reminder, many have gotten so carried away with trying to satisfy every other person’s FULFILLMENT, that some teachers will not even use red ink for grading papers, and keeping score is eliminated from some youth sports activities, etc. Everyone is supposed to have enhanced self-esteem simply because society encourages it. WRONG! Let’s face it, some refuse encouragement even if offered on the proverbial silver platter.
The way to fulfillment is first recognition and respect for ourselves and others, then assistance to others where possible, finally taking necessary steps along the way for our own attainment. It is not expecting that each one is as equal as the other. This spills over into general society in the form of economic theory.
If everyone is at an “equal” status economically, then where will the concentration of wealth be for charitable work? Should it all be left to a government, when given the power, will restrict all access to fulfillment except through the toll-taking bureaucracy?
One last thought – Most people today feel that far too many people are earning way more than they deserve. This is not new. This complaint has been with humanity from the beginning. People have tried to remove these inequities with various forms of economies. Communism could not eliminate it because the Party members seem to get first crack at all the good jobs and money, while non-Party affiliates did with less or without. And, there was only so much room for Party members. Capitalism will never eliminate it because a free society should never dictate and limit the goals to one’s personal fulfillment. What free markets can do is work harder to instill a sense of responsibility in each of us.
Please keep it between the lines.
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