something that mage said has struck my interest. he said that
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It is impossible for an equal society to occur, because whether people want to face it or not, people are DIFFERENT, not EQUAL, there are the rich and the poor, those who are smart and those who are stupid, those with charisma and those without, those with ambition and those who don't care, and people who will fall in everywhere between
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to me, this is mixing the cause for the effect. the societal issues that arise from having an unequal distribution of any resource (be it power, money, land, etc.) must not be confused with the idea that these inequalities CAUSE the societal issues. in other words, the poor do not MAKE the rich have more money than them; insofar as this is true on a macro level (and not the old "but-they-buy-alcohol-and-give-their-money-to-the-rich" defense), it is rather the systemic inequalities that cause one person to be more or less "equal" (in terms of allocation of the same resources: money, power, etc).
now, with that having been said, the question of "equality" is multiplistic, and we provide our own context and interpretation for each. we can wax philosophic about hypothetical equality and inequality, but ultimately we must realize the futility of such endeavors. i am not as equal as stephen hawkings at astrophysics, but i am more equal to him in that matter than my 15 year old sister (at least, i certainly HOPE i am
we are equal only in one respect. as it was so eloquently put, we are equal only insofar as we are all individual conciousnesses existing in the same place. in other words we are equal only because 1=1=1=1..... ad nauseum.
just my thoughts on the matter..............