No, People Are Not Equal

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A fundamental tenet of Western philosophy and consequently Western civilization is that everyone is equal. This stems from the Christian philosophy of Egalitarianism- everyone is equal before the eyes of God. This kind of thinking is not exclusive to Christianity. Buddhism, Islam, and most of Hinduism echo this sentiment.

Now, I am no God, so I shall not judge this from the religious or spiritual angle. However, on this material plane, my senses paint me a clear picture. People are just not equal.

People are born into various different circumstances that they have no control over. Their race, their parents, their socio-economic background as a child. Immutable characteristics like one’s face and height are fairly determined by one’s genes. We can objectively say for example, that one is stronger than the other.

We do not treat the beggar the way we do a prince. We do not treat our boss the way we do our junior. We understand that one person is superior to the other and alter our behaviour accordingly. It is laughable to say we do not see status and that everyone gets treated the same.

It is a fact that we judge. To judge is human. One need not accept somebody’s judgement of you, but it is still valuable data nonetheless.

The problem I have with the cult of equality is nuanced. I agree with most of it. I believe in common courtesy and decency. I believe everyone has the right to basic human dignity. However, if we believe everyone is the same, we do not uncover the truth and that causes huge amounts of avoidable pain and suffering.

I shall give an example to illustrate. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you would know I started taking fitness seriously only last year. I never cared about the food I ate or the state of my body. It took me moving to a new city and living next to a gym to finally get me into it. Now it is fairly easy since it’s a habit. However, I have known friends who have been health freaks since their teens. They have been clean and consistent with their health habits for a long time and they didn’t need a push like me. One day they wanted to be healthy and suddenly decided to commit to a set of actions.

If we treat everyone the same, we overlook the fact that different people respond to different things. We are not identical pieces of equipment. Each person is unique and finding out a style that works for a certain person is its own journey.

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Now, here’s the twist. I want you to forget everything I talked about above. If you want to self-improve and get better, it is imperative to believe you have what it takes. Take inspiration from other people. It does not matter if the methods your heroes used did not work for you. The important part is starting. You will learn about yourself along the way.

Learning through action is the best way of actually learning. I shall write more about it about this fascinating topic at a later date. Today’s blog was more of a theoretical breakdown of what I believe about the world but I also recognize that it is not necessarily useful to know. If you get the results you seek without knowing the true mechanisms underneath, isn’t it better than knowing the truth but never actually getting anything done? Something to think about.

Till next week, readers!