I believe in equality under law - laws applying the same to people regardless of differences such as gender and appearance. (Other than age - I understand that a 3 year old who steals is different than a 30 year old who steals)
The funny thing about equality under law nowadays is that the democrats seem to think they have to garuntee equality and balance it out somehow by chosing a group they feel is opressed and changing the law around them. How can you have equality under law by making certain groups unequal under law? For example, affirmative action: is it eqality under law to choose one group to give what they consider preferential legislation?
I believe equality under law should mean exactly what it says: The same laws apply to every American citizen.
Yes, equality and equal opportunity are realistic and necessary objectives for anyone who lives in a free society. The alternative is to pigeonhole people and assign them to predetermined roles in life on the basis of gender, skin color, and heritage regardless of individual ability.
Are you suggesting that we should go back to the days when women were expected to stay home, take care of the house and kids, and be subservient to their husband even if he was an imbecile? Or when blacks were segregated from whites and only hired for menial jobs?
Equality does not mean that everyone is the same. It means that each person has the right to pursue whatever career or role in life they choose, and not be excluded on the basis of any physical characteristic not germane to their ability to do the job. Everyone gets a fair chance and people of one group cannot be given preferences over others. It means recognizing that every human being has the right to be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of age, sex, wealth, color, or social status. And it means that the government cannot decree who you may love, or how.
The idealistic notion of "equality" exists and is fuelled by the actuality of "inequality". Evolutionary theory is of course based on such an actuality.
Those societies which claim to be "free" are ones in which a basic level of physical well being has been established for all its members who therefore have the luxury of of arguing about "higher order privileges".
Such societies forget that their cushion of "internal freedom" is usually at the expense of their unequal usage of the worlds resources with respect to poorer societies. (US uses 26 times per capita than poorest nations).
So "freedom" and "equality" depend on where each of us constructs the mental boundary of "social conscience"
Hold on a minute Fresco, the U.S. isn't nessarily using up all of the world's resources. We are a world power right now with a strong military and large amount of money.
Fresco: "is usually at the expense of their unequal usage of the worlds resources with respect to poorer societies. (US uses 26 times per capita than poorest nations). "
You make it sound like we're stealing their food. When a wealthy country establishes (non-slave) trade with a poor country, that country benefits (even if we pay them less than American minimum wage, because wages and what they can buy vary from country to country.) We eat more and we spend more, but it is not at the expense of other nations (excluding oil, which is another matter.)
Portal Star
The point is not that the West is "stealing" (not in this thread at least), but that the concepts of "freedom" and "equality" are relative to our cultural norms and expectations. Those who request "equality" always want more, not less !
If "equality" meant rounding down then only those below average would advocate it.....but it doesn't.....and the actuality (as shown by the failure of communism) is that a hierarchy will always emerge.
Well, my goodness. The Irish lexicon is back. Happy New Year, Irish!
Portal Star and Fresco, I am resisting the urge to say "....some are more equal than others...."
fresco: agreed.
Letty: No, all people are not equal, we are all different with different backrounds, physical and mental traits, etc.. But the law should not change based on these differing characteristics, it should be applied equally.
Portal Star, sorry. I'm always making allusions to stuff. The use of the quote was from Animal Farm. Of course, it was a reference to the fact that what a person says before they become heads of state, is quite different from what they touted before.
Oh, right, right. I should have known, they made me read that book a zillion times in high school.
