I have no doubt that most have you are familiar with much of the "equality" rhetoric that is often used these days. It can most often be heard by some politician or public official who is looking to be reelected or use public funds. Equality rhetoric is a masterful form of persuasion in our day and age because it hits most people with two different feelings: Guilt or Envy. The reason this is the case is because when someone starts speaking of equality we are either lead to feel guilty of the things we have been able to experience in our lives due to "inequality gaps" that others haven't. Or, we are envious, that due to those same gaps, we have not been able to experience all that someone else has.
Now, on one level, inequality is a real issue. There should not be areas where judgement is skewed in one direction or another simply due to some sort of prejudice of inequality. However, many times when our culture throws around the word equality we are not talking about these instances. Instead, we have created a false understanding of equality that works off of a least common denominator approach to things. What I mean when I say "least common denominator" is that instead of allowing naturally occurring differences (known as inequality) to shape the way society is set up, we instead would prefer to level the playing field, not only by advancing those individuals who are seem to be experiencing inequality, but also by lowering those individuals who seem to be promoting inequality by their success.
The video below gives one example where something good is destroyed just so something not as good is equal to it. I found it very stupid but not so surprising considering how much the "equality rhetoric" has caught on in our society.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEgY83gUYeE
You will see that ultimately the two teams were not equal. The parents of the baseball team, for whatever reason, had more time, money, motivation, drive, etc than the parents of the softball team and decided they wanted to do something about it. However, due to the necessity of equality, their efforts are being destroyed.
Food for thought.
Michael
