The Tyranny of Equality

Two of the primary components of what "America" has been about are equality and individuality. Now, if you think about it for a moment, it is easy to define "equality" in such a way that "individuality" could not exist. Individuality requires inequality in the sense that if we're all "equal" -- the same -- there is no individuality. Of course, that is not what we mean when we say "equality." We mean "equal rights" and "equal worth" and "equal opportunity" -- things like that.

Or, at least, we once did. Today, without giving it a thought, we've attempted to push toward individuality as the highest value right alongside equality, by which we mean equal. In the racism unrest of our day, one side is saying, "Yes! Equal opportunity!" and the other side is saying, "No! Equal outcome!" "Equal outcome" means "we end up in the same place." "Equal outcome" means "we have the same things." "Equal value" means "we have the same economic wealth." So we are working hard to tear down the wealthy to elevate the less fortunate and ... make us all equal.

On the surface, that may seem fair. In practice, however, it is a form of tyranny. Kurt Vonnegut wrote a short story, Harrison Bergeron, about a future 2081 where Constitutional amendments required that all Americans be fully equal. Since the only way to make that possible is to find the lowest common denominator, anyone in this society with higher capabilities had to be handicapped. People with skills and abilities were artificially disabled so as not to be better than anyone else. It was, to be sure, fiction, but it is the logical conclusion of today's arc of thinking. And it's not purely theoretical. California made the news because they want to change how they teach math to make it more "equal." They plan to hold back gifted students and remove the possibility of individual advancement in the name of social justice -- equality. If we are to be equal, we have to take from those with more rather than attempt to elevate those with less. "I earned it" becomes irrelevant. "I was born with it" is an offense. The ultimate evil becomes those with more than me (and the obvious problem of who "me" is makes "evil" a variable). And, in so doing, we run down the rabbit trail of "equality" that, as it turns out, was originally created by envy.

God, on the other hand, is very clever. He offers equality (Gal 2:28) and individuality (1 Cor 12:14-21). He offers equal worth with differing roles, coheirs with Christ (Rom 8:17) with varying gifts (1 Cor 12:7). He gives us both equal grace and individual attention (Matt 10:30). He does not make us all the same. That would not produce the best results. Instead, He makes us all different in appearance, role, mission, ability, etc. and treats us all the same.

Because of sin, we are producing a drive for equality that is a form of tyranny. "More" and "less" are both wrong. "Same" is the best. Except ... it's not. And we know it. Still we push for it. While God offers something so much more, so much better -- the liberty of equality and individuality in His arms.