Plutarch says somewhere that he does not
find so much difference between one animal and another as he does between one
man and another. Montaigne goes further and says that ‘there is more distance
from a given man to a given man than from to a given man to a given animal’. I
agree with him and find Plutarch’s comment very monotonous. Humans are
complicated, difficult to understand and analyze since all people are created
differently. Therefore we do not expect them to be equal in any way although
all people’s fate is rotating between birth and death.
If equality was that much easy to create, we
can say that it would not be too significant all around the world. Let’s go
from general to specific to figure it out. Do not think about other livings,
ignore them for a second. Assume that we humans are alone in this planet.
Moreover, only think about the people around you. You are there together with
those people at the same time period, in the same place and probably for the
same purpose. There may exist even more common points than we guess but despite
all the common points between you and the people around you, still can we talk
about any kind of equality? Not really. While it is possible for every human to
have a unique finger, tongue and retina print, it seems also possible to say
there is no people who are equal to each other, even the twins because of the
differences between humans caused by genetic and environmental factors. Of
course there are some similarities between humans but interestingly, they also
help people be more different than each other. Just with an easy mathematical
operation, I see that the different combinations of differences and
similarities between humans create much more differences and that establishes a
ground for huge inequalities.
Every human has different ideas, thoughts
and attitudes. Even if sometimes they have the possibility to be similar, they
are not totally same when we ‘see the big picture’ because the links between
ideas and the process creating them vary depending on the conditions. 2 people
may have same thought about the same circumstance, which does not mean that
they think in the same way since they did not have the same thought at the same
time and under the same condition. Moreover, things constantly change, I am not
the girl who I was a few second ago because I add some value to myself by
writing a couple of sentences. Just like Heraclitus said, everything is
constantly changing, nothing remains same.
You could not step twice into the same
river; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.
HERAKLITUS
Things change and people who have already
been different than each other become more different as the time goes. It is
meaningless to believe in that universal laws for all livings create a fair
atmosphere and make all the livings equal to each other. It actually increases
the inequality. Let me explain you why with the help of one of my experiences a
few years ago. I remember joining a training program to teach blind people how
to live better and more independently. Beside practical education, we had some
heated debates on equality. They were always saying that we are equal, we are
all humans, does not matter we do see or not. We want neither positive nor
negative discrimination. Then I realized there is something wrong with their
point of view. Beside the fact that we are not equal, equality does not help
them live better. It is just a matter of honor.
What they need is actually not equality but opportunity to be equal. It
was a contradiction in terms, they cited the result as a reason, I mean they
believed what they need was equality, instead it was opportunity for equality.
First of all I wanted them to accept that we are not equal, I took the risk of
breaking hearts, hurting someone’s emotions but I wanted them to accept it for
at least once and suffer no more psychological pain in their future lives.
Thankfully, people knew that my aim was not to humiliate anyone, I was just realistic, and trying to help
blinds. However, blinds kept their demand to be seen equal to the people able
to see, which had no meaning in real life. I asked them: If you are equal to a
person who is able to see, then what is the meaning of equality of opportunity?
and kept talking: If you are equal to me, leave your walking stick, hold that
book and read it, freely walk in the traffic, enter to my school, take the
exams without someone reading you the questions. Our aim here is to make blinds
equal to seeing people in terms of opportunity, because we are not able to
change the reality, we cannot totally change the way God created us, we can
only touch people to make it up for it by giving opportunities to minimize the
inequality among people. Come on, the reason for me to be here is to make
people live under more equal conditions. If we were equal, why would I be here?
When you internalize the reality, it will make you even stronger. So please,
tell me we are not equal so that we try to change it.
“The truth is cruel, but it can be loved,
and it makes free those who have loved it.”
GEORGE SANTAYANA
So the duty of the government is not to
offer same service or procedure for
everyone but to distribute opportunities equally so that the citizens live
equally. It is valid for the law system. An effective law system should not
judge people depending on their actions. Similar offences can be committed by 2
totally different people and it seems highly unfair to give them same
punishment firstly because people are different, secondly because the time,
place and conditions are different when people commit the offence. That is why
law system in Turkey fails most of the time. The borders of the laws are
certain and very detailed. You look at the guilty and the crime and after you
check the laws, match them in the most appropriate way and hit guilty with
punishment, no questions asked. That is not fair, but also it is another big
topic that I should not touch for now.
All those are about the inequality among
humans. Now, it is time to go to general from specific to make sure that we are
still on the right path. Let’s include other livings in our equality circle. In
my opinion, concept of humanity makes the equality among livings inevitably
impossible. It is neither wisdom and inspiration nor the ability of empathy
that separates humans from others because developing science and technology
bravely show us the existence of some animals more capable of thinking,
learning, establishing empathy. Actually, the thing creating the difference is
inner conscience. I am still astonished how this kind of inner mechanism
discovered and how it can be the basis of daily behaviors of humans. It warns
people when they stray from their intended path, it tells them what to do and
not to do: “Stop! Do not do it!” Sometimes we cannot hear her enough and as a
result we do something unethical. We think it is Okey, but after a while, it
starts hurting us. Next time, we never do it again since inner conscience keeps
the regret inside of us fresh all the time. I guess it is mere inner conscience
that gives our world resistance against all the evils until today. I cannot
imagine our planet with the people lack of inner conscience. People with high
inner conscience are absolute need for now and for the future generations.
On some positions, Cowardice asks the
question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it
politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it
popular?" But Conscience asks the question "Is it right?" And
there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor
politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is
right. I believe today that there is a need for all people of good will to come
together with a massive act of conscience and say in the words of the old Negro
spiritual, "We ain't goin' study war no more." This is the challenge
facing modern man.
MARTIN LUTHER KING
Let me prove the trueness of my point in
terms of linguistic sciences. Language has been developing as people use it.
When people could not say what they mean by words, they came up with new ones to
explain their emotions and so languages developed. Think about the adjectives used
for people and think about the ones assigned to other livings since adjectives
mainly imply the differences. You will then see that almost all adjectives are
used for humans which proves the differences between is much more than the
differences between others. It also shows humans are more likely to be unequal
as their nature required because they are too complicated. Hayakawa, my Canadian-born
American brother, also an English professor, served as president of San
Francisco State University says that:
Such complicated and apparently
unnecessary behavior leads philosophers, both amateur and professional, to ask
over and over again, "Why can't human beings live simply and
naturally?" Often the complexity of human life makes us look enviously at
the relative simplicity of such lives as dogs and cats lead. But the symbolic
process, which makes possible the absurdities of human conduct, also makes
possible language and therefore all the human achievements dependent upon
language[…] A better solution is to understand the symbolic process so that
instead of being its victims we become, to some degree at least, its masters.
SAMUEL ICHIYE HAYAKAWA
I appreciate the way he
thinks and writes. There is no word to add his explanation of the complexity of
human behaviors. I did not see Plato has explained the complexity of humans in
his Utopia, he seems like he ignored it. But anyway, I worked it out.
These things reflect the owners mind. Bad
for the man
Who cannot use
them, they are good for him who can.
TERENCE
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