Re: My view

[Guest guest]

Kaiden wrote:

For centuries, the West has been paying lip-service to the concept of

>equality, and it's gotten us almost nowhere. The concept of diversity, and

>strength through diversity, seems to have a much better status, as far as

>results are going.

Perhaps that's partly due to the fact that two many people

confuse " being equal " (i.e., being the same) with the idea

of political equality, equality of treatment. The latter

is the kind of equality on which our republic supposedly

is founded (though we all know the contradictions that

exist and always have existed, right from the start).

For a society to decide that the ideal is " equality before

the law " or " equal lending " or anything of that sort does

not depend on individual human beings to be equal to one

another. It simply means that we are treated as entitled

to equal reguard in many ways, no matter what our

individual characteristics may be. Restrictions of that

equality continue to exist, but the ideal remains as a

goal for many people.

Some (e.g., C.S. ) has pointed out that our very lack

of literal equality is one reason why political equality

(rules requiring equal treatment) is so essential. We cannot

depend on those in positions of power to be equal to the

task of exercising that power responsibily. Many of them

(or more precisely, many of *us* -- us humans) may do it

well, but (because we are various and variously flawed

humans) some will not. The rule of political equality

(equal treatment) should protect against unequal (unjust)

treatment.

A " perfect " (truly perfect) system might be one in which

each unique individual would receive exactly appropriate

treatment (treatment exactly matching the individual's

unique characteristics/value/behavior/etc.). But we humans

are not perfect enough to be trusted with that degree of

discretion (according to this theory). The best we can do

is require of ourselves that we afford each other the most

equal treatment we are able to institute.

Jane

[Guest guest]

LOL,

that was funny and still so true. Ditto to my heart.