We Are not Born Equal

Not only are we not born equal, we will not live as equals and we shall almost certainly not die equal. I suppose we should really try to define what equality actually is. But that’s extremely difficult to do. Different people have different abilities and some are more “useful” than others. That is to say, within the environment and/or society they are born into, some genetic mutations are more appropriate or desirable than others. The ability to develop greater strength inherent in a baby’s genetic code may be more advantageous (or less) than having greater powers of cognition and reasoning. Of course, these things are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but throughout human history it would seem that those that appear to possess much of one. Will generally be somewhat lacking in the other!

The vast majority, I would say, have a decent amount of both and are able to survive on their strength and wits combined. But If you consider someone like Steven Hawking. . . Who is considered by millions to be a GENIUS. Then some might say that he is more worthy in society and/or the human race as a whole than the average farmer (providing food for example) or cleaners, or care workers and others too. But IS HE really? Since his chronic disability left him wheelchair bound and unable to speak, without help from many “ordinary” people, the Great Mr Hawking would not have been able to survive as long as he has. Therefore, much of his musings on cosmology and particle-physics, etc. Would have been lost to the world.

But just because each person has a role to play in the world of man, it does not make them equal. In a hypothetical “perfect” machine, (or society) there may be no single small part that can we spared without causing the machine to stop performing its required function. But nothing is ever that perfect. Anyhow, living creatures (that includes us humans of course) can generally adapt to either “fill in the gaps” to continue functioning as before, or simply change the function of what it actually does and live with it. I say “generally”, because there will occasionally be someone who just cannot be replaced in a particular system and it will ultimately fail. I realise that this is not what some people think of as being born “equal”. . . But it is the way I look at it anyway.

Religious teachings are often there to trick us into subjugation, under a kind of (sometimes subtle) tyranny which pretends to be egalitarian and utilitarian. . . But are neither.