Equal Vs. Equality

The arguments about equal and equality have been debated a lot in recent years.  My take on the matter is what I believe to be, straightforward.  I'm no biologist, but I understand basic science.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of Freedom's Creed. I hope your week is off to a great start and that you look forward to what you're about to do the remaining days of this week. I certainly am. The older I get, the more that I appreciate the days of my life and realize that no one is invincible. We will all, at some point in time, call a quits here in mortality and move on to the next dimension. Whatever that is for you, I know what it is for me, and I feel pretty good about that. So I hope that you too are also looking forward, not so much forward like today or tomorrow, but forward to the time when you can go to where you want to spend eternity. I know. You're thinking this guy is into some deep philosophy today. Well, not today. I will be talking about something that is really important to me. And as a matter of fact, it's something that kind of came to me last minute. I was prepared to do something totally different today, but I will plan on doing that in the next episode. So look forward to that when it comes next week. Though now that I think about it, I may have to devote at least one episode to something that I would refer to as spiritual or something that is very philosophical, perhaps, or very church-centered, you might say. Something that I would pose the question as what is going to happen to us after we leave this mortal state? So I'll mill that around in my mind and see about talking about something like that, because it's in truth a big part of my life and has been for many decades and will continue to be as long as I'm taking up some space here on this planet. Anyway, with that, let's get into it today. So I'm talking about equal versus equality today. Now, if we were to define equal, that means the same or alike. Equality, on the other hand, according to Webster's dictionary, means the quality or state of being equal. Now, I'm a pretty simple guy, so I look at the definition of equal, which is alike or the same, and then Webster's dictionary wants to define equality as the state of being equal. Those two cannot coexist. I'm sorry. Webster's dictionary has it wrong. In other words, the way I see it, equal and equality are mutually exclusive. To say it another way, we could say that the terms equal and equality will create discord, especially when there are people who try to equate the two terms as being the same. They simply are not. Here's what I know. I know that we are all different. None of us is exactly like another human being on this planet. Each of us are unique, which means that we will never be equal to another person. We are different. It's true, however, that women have two X chromosomes, inheriting one X chromosome from their mother and an X chromosome from their father. And men, on the other hand, have an X chromosome from their mother and a Y chromosome from their father. There is no changing that. And that the thing that is hereditary in all of us is that we have a double helix. We all come from the same building blocks. I find that extremely incredible, and it never ceases to blow my mind. It's incredible. And here's something else that's quite factual, actually. Not all women are equal. Some women are more masculine than feminine. And not all men are equal. Some men show more feminine traits than masculine traits. But that does not take away from the basic structure of the human being and breaking it down even further, female human beings and male human beings. If you're like me, I'll take thousands of years of history that says that when you have two X chromosomes, you will be female. If you have an X and a Y chromosome, you will be male. End of story. Now that's not to say that a female and a male can be very much alike. We all see it. Sometimes many couples who have been married for decades will often sometimes start to look alike. They may start to think a lot alike and finish each other's sentences and so forth. But that does not change the basic fact that they are still both different. The female having two X chromosomes, and the male an X and a Y chromosome. That's not going to change. But certainly, there are myriad ways that we are all different. And you know what? That is perfectly okay. In fact, I would much prefer it to be that way, as opposed to all of us trying to be the same. How boring. The idea that we are all different starts from the day that we are born. In fact, it's exactly how we entered the world at birth. Being different. And that should be celebrated. You see people today talking about diversity and how that should be celebrated. Well, every human being is diverse from their counterparts. Though the same structure goes into creating each being, we are still all different. Even identical twins, for instance, they're not a hundred percent equal, especially when it comes to intellect, personality, emotions, etc. We were designed to be different. And there's no denying that fact. Furthermore, if identical twins are not equal in every aspect of their beings, it stands to reason that the rest of us, though we may have similar characteristics, personalities, intellect, on and on and on, we are still different. There's an article written by Dan Sanchez writing for the Foundation for Economic Education, in which he writes about what the American founders meant by equality. Inasmuch as people today in our society want to make equal and equality the same, well, ladies and gentlemen, they are not the same. In fact, Dan Sanchez says, quote, The Declaration of Independence famously proclaimed that all men are created equal, thanks in part to that prestigious endorsement, equality has become a widely held social ideal. Mr. Sanchez goes on to say, Many today invoke equality to deny any variation in qualities among individuals or in the resulting qualitative tendencies among sets of similar individuals. They condemn any acknowledgement of differences in aptitude, ability, character, and accomplishment as an affront to a quality. So if there are people who deny that there are variations in qualities among individuals, their reasoning then means that all of us must be equal in aptitude, ability, character, and accomplishment and on and on. Well guess what? That will never happen. We will never be the same. Equality and equal do not mean the same things, as I've already stated previously. Mr. Sanchez goes on to say that quote, many also call for equality of outcome. They regard inequality of outcomes, of wealth, income, services, treatment by private individuals, etc as a moral outrage to be rectified. And to tie it all together, he brilliantly says this the argument is that since everyone is equal, quote unquote, in their qualities, any inequality of outcome must be a consequence of injustice and bigotry. So in other words, if you run a hundred-yard dash or they call it a hundred meter dash nowadays, then all the runners, however many that is, must cross the finish line at the same time. Because if they don't, then somehow that's bigoted and it's injustice in any activity when it comes to sports and competition. The game must be played to a tie at the end. Because if not, then it's injustice that one of the teams has to lose. This is why I love sports analogies, because most everyone gets it. People realize that in competition there is going to be a team, or if it's an individual sport, there's going to be an individual who wins, and there's going to be an individual who loses. Just as is a team that wins or loses. I get it, because of stupid rules in the NFL. Sometimes two teams who play each other end in a tie. To me, that's bogus. You keep playing on until somebody wins. I don't care if it takes five hours. Just play on until one of the teams wins. Same thing in hockey. Just keep playing until somebody wins. Let the fans get their money's worth, because that's really what it would do. Give the fans an opportunity to cheer or be totally pissed because their team lost in a five and a half hour grueling battle. To me, that's what I want to see. I want to see a team win. And sometimes, you know what? My team's not gonna win. And I'm okay with that. Now, in this article that Mr. Sanchez writes, he refers to the English political philosopher John Locke. And one of the things that he said, quoting Locke, is that quote, as humans, we all have the faculty of reason. That does not mean that we are equally reasonable. I'll say it again. No two people are the same. It doesn't exist. Every person who has ever been born or who will be born on God's green earth is different. None of us are the same. To me, that is miraculous. And it just makes sense. Now I am pressed for time today, so this is going to be quite an abbreviated episode, but I need to go. Perhaps I will talk more about this at a later time, or I may interweave some of these same thoughts and ideals into other episodes going forward. But I want to end by reading from the Declaration of Independence, where the framers said this, We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. Now I've said this in previous episodes, I'll continue to say it until I have no breath in me to say it. Twenty first century declaration and constitution are much different in terms of equality than eighteenth, seventeenth, or even nineteenth century, or for that matter, even twentieth century America. But because I like to believe that we have evolved as a species, we have gotten in touch with our better selves, and we have rectified wrongs in as much as we can rectify them. We can't do anything about what happened in the past. Reparations will not work. You had hundreds of thousands of people who died to defend freedom and to abolish slavery. That's your reparations right there. What we need to do is ensure that each of us have an equal opportunity to pursue whatever form of happiness in our lives that we choose, so long as we are not hurting another person or encroaching upon the freedom and the liberty of someone else. That is the essence of a free society. In fact, that is the essence of American society and will be as long as we the people continue to defend the Declaration and the Constitution and do not allow evil or nefarious or ignorant even people to destroy what we have right in front of us. There is nothing better, in my estimation. My quote for this episode, ladies and gentlemen, is from the great Thomas Sowell. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the subject matter of today's episode. It's simply a quote that I really, really enjoy, and it's short and to the point, and it is this. Quote, I have never understood why it is greed to want to keep the money you have earned, but not greed to want to take somebody else's money. End of quote.