All People Are Not Created Equal
Ranked #1,352 in Culture & Society, #32,313 overall
HERE'S WHAT I THINK
When everyone's special, no one is.
I admit it. I'm an overachiever. A performance junkie. A gold star collector.
So it's easy to understand why it chaps my hide (and a few other body parts) that in the name of equality and ego and self-esteem, we have become a society that actually awards mediocrity.
Now, I don't have anything against trying to build up the self-esteem of children, but the way we've gone about it for the past 30 years has given them a false view of themselves and the world. This is not good. Not every one is equal and they shouldn't be led to believe that they are.
EXCEPTION THAT PROVES THE RULE
Justice takes a blind eye to our differences
Before you get your knickers in a twist (don't worry, you get your turn), let me remind you that equality (by which we tend to mean in a legal sense) and equal are not the same thing. The very fact that we even have the concept of "equal under the law" is testament to the fact that we aren't all equal in reality. The old injustices had to do with your station in life - whether you were part of the nobility or aristocracy. It is right that the law should treat everyone fairly. There should be no difference in treatment, penalty or protection for you or me.But while you and I are equal under the law (equality), we are not equal as people. I know what Jefferson wrote, but he completely understood this concept. From the standpoint of the government, all men are to be treated equally. But that doesn't change the fact that there are differences in the value of those people to society as a whole.
NOT ALL PEOPLE ARE CREATED EQUAL
Do not confuse equality under the law with being equal in all things
Which takes us back to the problem of the past 30 years and the "self-esteem" movement. It completely ignores the fact that some people are plain-old, flat-out better than others.Better at sports, better at math, better at logic, better at humor. Better. And (gasp!) someone (and it can only be one) is the best.
Despite our efforts to make everyone feel great about themselves, this fact isn't going to go away.
When we warp the standard for excellence, we end up with young professionals who don't understand how you could give them a negative review. We get college graduates who expect to walk in and be CEO by the second day. We get employees who think they "deserve" whatever you have to give.
People inflate their value and believe it comes just from how "special" they are and not necessarily in the quality of what they do or produce. After all, they always got gold stars for that effort before!
It's time to re-think the path we've been on. Grow up, learn to objectively evaluate performance and we'll all benefit from the results.
YOUR TURN!
When everyone's special, no one is.
Yes, you're right!
NOTEQUAL says:
It's clear as anything when you look at people that they are not equal, this concept has come from religious and spiritual ideologies which clearly have not benefitted at all.
Why say we are all equal when we all know we aren't?
When we focus on simple facts, there are all kinds of unforgivable despicable people out there ready to do horrific acts for their own gain with no intent of stopping.
There are so many people who we would all be better off without, so how are we all equal?
WE ARE NOT CASE CLOSED.
matthew S says:
I agree to a point. but also disagree on one main thing.
All people ARE created equal. Its what we do with our time on earth that separates us. It has nothing to do with race, religion, sex or anything else.
Every 4 years (per seasonal games) we have a competition to prove just that. NOT EVERYONE IS EQUAL.
Use whatever semantics you want to try and explain away that equality and skill are different but you will still fail.
If you tell Bobby he must give Johnny a handicap so that things are fair (doesn't matter if its sports, education, or something else) Are you not just telling Bobby he is better than Johnny? If you tell Bobby who worked hard all year long on making a solar system for a science fair and was judges to be the winner but then also give Johnny, who woke up that morning spray painted a couple balls and glued them to a board then wrote planet names by them, just as good of a trophy. Are you not telling Bobby there was no reason he needed to work that hard.
True equality is when you are acknowledged by others for what you do NOT when you make others acknowledge you for what you are capable of doing.
Edward says:
Have to agree with this one. I just googled how is it that people still think everyone is equal and found this. The biggest difference in this is imo between developing countries and the welfare countries. An individual that is born in very poor conditions and will have no chance of getting out of there is by no means equal to what a "regular" person in a welfare country is.
The other thing, what I wanted to point out is that looks and personality have a huge impact in an individuals life. If there are two people that sing equally well but the other one looks better its obvious which one will be chosen. The same applies for job interviews. Obviously, this doesn't mean that an ugly person can't be rich and succesful. It just means that to achieve the same thing as a good looking guy or girl you have to work that much harder.
Also one thing that is extremely sad imo is that some people are born with disabilities that make them unable to live a so called normal life. You can tell yourself that you are grateful for what you have etc but you cannot deny the fact that you will never be remarkable in your life.
I have accepted this as my philosophy for life. I do not say its 100% true or anything but as said in the text equality only appears in numbers or laws not real life.
Charles zi Britannia says:
Some people are superior, some inferior it is the meaning of life/nature to become superior this should be the goal.
All Hail Britannia!
lo says:
Yeah, anyone who thinks all people are equal is an eternal moron. Clearly we are all different. All species are different, that's why some animals kill others and some are faster than others, etc. Same with people, that's why there are different races, cultures, skin colors, different countries, etc. Most people are not very smart, that's fact, that's why we have this mediocrity. I mean look at the comments on here, there are such morons who say things like "We are all equal, but each person is unique and special", therefore completely contradicting themselves and clearly stating that WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT (UNIQUE, SPECIAL). Anyone who doesn't believe this is living in denial, and it's easy to understand why - it's because most people are average and want to feel better about themselves, they want to feel special, and the more average or below average a person is the more they want to preach this bullshit of equality. Equal means exact, like 2 x 2 is exactly 4, and there is no fucking way that we are all exact replicas of one another, I don't care how stupid you are but there is no way you can believe that to be true. There is a reason why white man is responsible for creating EVERYTHING that we now have in this world, everything of any significance or importance anyway. Without the white man, this world would be shit. And now we've got this bullshit preaching of equality, where we are trying to make everyone the same and be on the same level, which by the way will never ever work. How can someone that is dumber than the shit I took this morning, who has a brain the size of a peanut, who is black and listens to rap music and has pants falling off his ass with underwear showing, and who doesn't even know simple shit like Europe is a continent and not a country, be considered equal as someone smart? How can such a person go to the same school or live in the same neighborhood as someone smart? Why should this be true, it makes no sense, but people are stupid, cowardly, and completely self-conscious so no wonder this shit is the way it is.
Anonymous says:
Just look at "Harrison Bergeron", everyone is different, but that does not giving anyone the right to say they are the better person or to control the ones who have not found what they are good at.
Karine says:
all peole are not created equal, period. just look around
SaintFrantic says:
Yes, we can't be the same.That will be boring to death
wolfie10 says:
i think you are right , because just like life isn't fair not everyone is equal. human beings trying so many ways to make things better and equal, but it hasn't work so far.
we all live in hope that this is going to change one day.
Kiwilandman says:
I'd also just like to add that though I know the subject matter is slightly off topic from my very own rant, I can't help feel the two are inevitably intertwined.
No way, Monkeybrain!
Patrick Jones says:
wow, "lo" ... you're kind of a racist pig, dude.... but hey, call me a liberal youth from Massachusetts. I don't know about you, but I think its pretty stupid to base intelligence off of musical interest.
He's probably never going to read this.
Patrick Jones says:
look, everybody is out for his or her own self-validation. From what I read, you seem to be the person who sees himself as smarter, harder working, more logical and generally better than those around him whereas your measurable success doesn't validate it; you have to validate yourself through blogs like this. As I do as well. I'm an 18 year old high school kid. I'm a senior at one of the top public high schools in the country. On average, our kids score 600 points higher on the SAT than the national average and we send kids off to the Ivys. I write this with self-awareness; I write this knowing that I am self-conscious of my wealth compared to my peers, my intelligence compared to my peers, my ability to speak (I stutter) compared to my peers, and my athleticism compared to my peers. I'm 5'11 and 130lbs, I was born prematurely and weighed 3lbs at birth. My younger brother, who is now 13, is 6', 170lbs and was 10lbs at birth. He is already a star in the eyes of high school varsity coaches. He also makes me feel self-conscious, especially in the eyes of my parents. I write to you because I feel insecure about my own talents.
I believe that all humans are born with a roll of the dice. We are born with a blank slate, like the theory of John Locke, however we constantly react to experiences by nature of being alive. I mean experiences in the broadest sense, like opting to cross your legs while reading this, or choosing to cry immediately after being born. I mean that we are constantly making decisions, and our moral compass is constantly changing to make us feel satisfied with a future that reflects our past. I believe that we are all equally adept at being alive; we all have an equal amount of talent. For example, take men named Jim and Bob. Jim is artistic. He is extraordinarily creative and expresses this trait through drawing his thoughts. Bob is more academic. He has great memorization skills and loves to read. As both men progress through their childhoods, colleges and universities place more value on Bob's academic nature. Bob goes off to college, Jim doesn't. Bob graduates from law school and gets a high paying job whereas Jim is living in poverty, struggling as an artist. Your argument determines that Bob is successful because he is more talented than the next guy, in this case, the next guy is Jim. I believe that in the randomness of human development, certain traits, that I believe represent equal skill, have become more measurably valuable in our society. I beileve that our society, in the United States, distributes value over skills differently than other human societies. We value the ability to memorize and take tests much more strongly than, for example, prehistoric Ethiopian hunter-gatherer societies who existed 20,000 years ago. How dare we determine that our Yale Law school graduates are more talented than the best prehistoric hunters?
Charlie from the UK says:
You guys on the no way monkeybrain side are right because we al have equal rights man!!!!!
Monkeybrain says:
Its all about Money Baby!
bloodswiper says:
I think that everyone should be treated the same as it is not someones fault if they are born into a poor background and it is not a nice feeling to hear about people that have control over you
Elena says:
everyone is special as they are diffenrent thats what makes them speical
Michael says:
I disagree with the notion that the only equality among people, is the same or equal treatment under the law. I disagree with this for two reasons, the first of which is an illustrative and minor point that I think needs to be recognized and the second is what I think is really missing from your analysis.
The first dispute I have is that we do not have equal treatment under the law - if you dispute this, then please explain to me how the IMF Head (Strauss-Kahn) was treated with respect and courtesy while being arrested for rape, while anyone else who has no name recognition or political or business influence, is generally tackled to the ground and hauled away rather forcibly - even when they are cooperating? This is item 1 in a long long list of the many legal inequalities, in our "equal" legal system. I will leave it at that to illustrate the point that there is no or not complete equality under our legal system.
The second dispute I have is that, all people are in fact equal. The manner in which we are all equal is not in our various physical and mental abilities or attributes, but rather in one of them. All people are equal in that we can all think for ourselves, and take possible actions which suits us and our lives - usually those actions are believed to be for the betterment or our lives either temporarily or permanently. This is how people are equal. If you dispute this I am curious to know how exactly. I believe that this is something we all know but often overlook, and when thinking about equality we tend to dismiss it when we realize that some people are better at thinking for themselves when compared to others, however that does not take away the fact that we all do have this ability, and that is how we are equal, and why we are granted equal protection under the law (or should have).
thinkingaloud says:
Obviously, some people are more talented than others. But we all have the same basic "worth" - not economic worth but the sort of value that prompted the shepherd in the bible story to leave 99 sheep to search for one lost sheep.
Adam says:
Everyone is equally defenseless and innocent at birth and equally unable to prevent death. A human being is just a clawless ape with only its technology to defend itself. Someone may be wealthier, better looking, and stronger than me but none of that would matter if I was pointing a gun at them. If some people are deemed better than others, what's next? Heterosexuals are better than homosexuals because they can reproduce? Christians are better than Jews because their religion is more popular? Machines better than humans because they can "think" faster and feel no emotion?
SunDog says:
Yes someone can be better AT SOMETHING, someone can be stronger, faster, smarter, etc but they are not a better PERSON. No one is better than anyone. No one has a right to say they are better than someone because they are bigger or more talented, those who do are narrow minded morons. Chances are their parents just fed them well or spoiled them with instruments and text books rather than video games. Don't ever believe that anyone is better or worse than anyone else.
When everyone's special,
no one is.
The Incredibles
What happens when you force super to be normal
The Incredibles (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
Amazon Price: $12.98 (as of 06/03/2012)
From the Academy Award winning creators of Finding Nemo (2003 Best Animated Feature Film) comes the action-packed animated adventure about the mundane and incredible lives of a house full of superheroes. Bob Parr and his wife Helen used to be among the world's greatest crime fighters,saving lives and battling evil on a daily basis. Fifteen years later, they have been forced to adopt civilian identities and retreat to the suburbs where they live "normal" lives with their three kids, Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack. Itching to get back into action, Bob gets his chance when a mysterious communication summons him to a remote island for a top secret assignment. But he soon discovers that it will take a super family effort to rescue the world from total destruction.
HELP ME PROVE MY POINT
If you agree, add links (proof!) that help me make my case
Add a link that makes my case.
Is High Self-Esteem Bad for You?
Recent studies that denigrate the value of self-es more...0 points
The American Culture: Ideas Have Consequences: Self-Esteem, Achievement, and Narcissism
Now we find that this wonderful self-esteem moveme more...0 points
Narcissism can be as much a hindrance as a help to relationships, new UGA study reports
For two decades, self-help books have hammered hom more...0 points
Study finds students narcissistic - The Boston Globe
Today's college students are more narcissistic and more...0 points
BOOKS THAT MAKE THE CASE
Understanding Healthy Self Esteem
- Self-Esteem Self-Test
- Your self-esteem, however, is something more fundamental than the normal "ups and downs" associated with situational changes. For people with good basic self-esteem, normal "ups and downs" may lead to temporary fluctuations in how they feel about themselves, but only to a limited extent. In contrast, for people with poor basic self-esteem, these "ups and downs" may make all the difference in the world.
DISPROVE MY POINT (fine, be that way)
Disagree? Put your money where your mouth is and show us why.
Post links that point out why you think I'm wrong.
Healthy Self-Esteem Not Cause of Student Narcissism - Opinion
Healthy Self-Esteem Not Cause of Student Narcissis more...0 points
WHAT PASSES FOR UNIQUE VALUE
I have noticed that it's true.
No one walks the way I walk.
No one talks the way I talk.
No one plays the way I play.
No one says the things I say.
I am special.
I am me.
RELATED NEWS: FODDER FOR ARGUING MORE
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- Bendamustine, developed in the former German Democratic Republic a half-century ago yet unknown in the United States until recent years, should become the preferred chemotherapy standard of care in initial combination regimens for indolent lymphomas ...
HAVE A GENERAL COMMENT ON THE LENS?
Got something more to say on the subject? Leave your thoughts here. Note that I moderated comments so argue away, but be polite about it.
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Thrinsdream
Apr 16, 2012 @ 5:18 pm | delete
- Fabulous article that has evoked a brilliant response. Really enjoyed my little journey through your thinking. With thanks and appreciation. Cathi x
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jEsChrDs82
Jan 28, 2012 @ 1:28 pm | delete
- I believe in equality but I'm aware that we are not created equal, but it's the reality of life. We strive so hard to meet the standard our society considered "better", it's sad but that's the real world.
constitution for kids
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SaintFrantic
Oct 9, 2011 @ 4:19 pm | delete
- thanks i really enjoyed your lens
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grannysage Sep 22, 2011 @ 3:10 pm | delete
- I think that mediocrity is encouraged by our society. We are told to fit in, wear the same clothes, listen to the same music. Be normal. But I believe that everyone is special in their own way. Everyone has something that should be nurtured, something that helps make the world a better place. It may be something small like the ability to make people smile. I was just reading a lens about Lady Gaga and was reminded of this quote. "?You have to be unique, and different, and shine in your own way.? Instead of comparing myself to others and finding myself lacking in some way, I try to focus on my individuality, something that I bring to the table that is uniquely me.
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dier1
Jan 12, 2011 @ 2:07 pm | delete
- I LOVE myself. And as a matter of fact. I LOVE Everbody. Even if you don't LOVE me. Now that's LIFE!!! And what makes it so bad is that I don't even have to know you.
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