All People Are Equal
09 06 09 - 19:59 Splendid is humankind for its diversity in construction. As with all living creatures, every individual is unique-- no two, not even genetic clones, are exactly the same. This is the result of an immesurably complex series of interactions between forces within the construction of that individual as well as the events and circumstances surrounding that individual through the course of time. The diversity we see in people, ideas, cultures, governments, vocations, are a natural result of this confluence of factors which are at once beyond our control and at the same time subject to the unique circumsances of each individual's life. The influence is mutual, and cumulative over time, both for the individual and for society.It is from this interaction between past and present, individual and society, nature and nuture (so to speak), that are manifested the unique characteristics and traits that define each human being as a singular entity. We are all made of the sum total of our experiences within the context of our lives, influenced by the times and circumstances of those times while simultaneously exercising our own degree of control and influence over them through our own choices, actions, and ideals.
Additionally from this interplay of differing forces are manifested sometimes stark dissimilarities in talent, taste, and personality, as well as all of the other multitudinous factors which together form the composition of an unique individual. Through different experiences, people derive different lessons. Through different exposures, people adjust, adapt, and are modified in slight and drastic ways alike. Proclivities, inclinations, disinclinations, fears, wants, desires, hopes and dreams: these things are unique to individuals, and each provide important contributions to the sum total of a person, and develop gradually over time.
A person's standing in society is possibly the greatest contributing factor to the development of that individual. Their position influences which experiences they have, what lessons they learn, what skills they develop, which resources are made availible to them, what opinions are ecouraged, and so on and so on. The effect of this influence is cumulative over the course of an individual's life, and as time progresses, that individual's identity is more and more solidified along class lines. Their individual talents and natural proclivities are incorporated into this identity in the context of the wider society, and play a similarly important role in the development of the individual's indentity relative to thier standing within that society.
In every society and human association through the course of time this interplay has produced unique individuals, talented and suited for their time and place, well incoprorated into the accepted norms of that society. In every society, the dissimilarites in human talent and ability have played important roles in the survival of these societies, and the functioning of individuals within them. These dissimilarites have been interprepted and appeciated by cultures in various ways, depending upon the prevailing opinions and perceptions of each culture. The influence of western culture is over-arching and pervasive in the world today, which carries with it some alarming conserquences. Western culture, relative to this discussion, interprets the dissimilarities in individual talents and proclivities as representations of individual superiority and the favor of providence, or of God.
The norms of western capitalist soceity, as it is manifested presently, pretend to the notion that monetary and proprietary gain is the pirmary measure and arbiter of individual success and of personal worth. Consequently, individuals born into circumstance wherein access to wealth is the norm are funnelled by the circumstances of their lives and within the context of the institutions to which they are subject into lines of thought and into the development of skills and talents which are suited to the task of maintaining and utilizing this wealth in methods proscribed by the prevailing society as "appropriate". Similarly, individuals born into circumstances of disenfranchizement and servitude are funnelled into patterns of thought and skill which relfect their status in society, and via the institutions which influence their development, over time and generations, the differences in classes are maintined, enforced, and perpetuated.
In prevailing western thought, the differences in individual talent and disposition are considered to be self-evidentiary representations of individual worth. A person who has money is assumed to be better suited to its possession and use simply for the reason that this person "has it", regardless of how the money came into their possession, and regardless of what they do with it. The opposite is true for the "less fortunate", who are presumed to be somehow defective, somehow less worthwhile, for their lack of resources. This is called "The Myth of Meritocracy", and is among the most ruinous and ruthless fallacies which support and condone the continuing exploitation of individuals and disequalibrious distribution of wealth and resources. Because material wealth is so highly valued in prevailing western society, wealthy and powerful individuals are considered to be intrinsically superior to those whose exploitation is required for the acquisiton and maintenance of that wealth. These individuals, in conjunction with existing institutions and established authorities, contrive mechanisms for the perpetuation of these ideas and for the continution of the hegemony required for the implementation of them, typically by force of arms or economics.
It is through the interplay of individuals within the context of the wider society, as most often manifested by interactions with such intistutions that individuals are influenced in the course of their lives to accept the prevailing ideas of the cultures and societies in which they are born and raised, particularly in the context of their social standing or class. The same process influences the development of their talents and proclivities. Therefore, the manifestation of dissimilar talents is not evidentiary of a dissimilarity in human worth, but rather an indicator of the universality of the human condition. True, physical make up plays a co-equal role in the development of skills and abilities, and as the physical construction of an individual is entriely not of their choosing, should not be considered evidentiary of personal deficiency or failure; rather, it should be appreciated as a unique manifestation of the sublimely complex and diverse array of human possibility. Neither should the expression of one talent or skill versus another be regarded as reflecting on a dissimilarity in personal worth between one individual over another, for these talents are also unique to the individual representing them, and formed naturally through the course of a splendidly unique individual history. Neither is it appropriate for any individual or organization to attempt to divide individuals into categories of worth relative to a broader society based upon arbitrary cultural designations regarding the primacy of one expression of talent and diversity versus another; without fail, institutions which set themselves in positions so as to enable the division of human diversity into categories of "worth" or "utility" do so primarily for the purpose of ensuring the continued service of those skills and the individuals possessing them to wealthy and powerful individuals and organizations which possess the requsite means to influence and control the aforementioned institutions which retain the power, through force of arms or economics, to make such designations; designations that are, without fail, purely cultural and arbitrary distinctions, done specifically (though often tacitly) for the perpetuation of the rule of the few over the many, and the exploitation of the labors of the masses to support the vanity and hubris of the ruling class.
Know always that this aspect of the human condition is universal: we are all part of this same scheme of interaction between our own personal histories and the societies and cultures in which we develop as individuals, regardless as to which society specifically this may be. The differences between us as individuals, rather than divide us into classes of more and less worthwhile people, are expressions of magnificent diversity and personal singularity and uniqueness, and help to define us as human beings. All People Are Equal in worth- no one person is intrinsically better than any other simply for the sake of the uncontrollable circumstances which have influenced their development as individuals; no expression of human possiblity is inheirently superior to another;
and no institution, no organization, no individual, no god and no government has the right to legislate, arbitrate, or otherwise designate human worth, for All People Are Equal, without exception or exemption!
Hale
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