The assertion that all men are equal is perhaps the purest falsehood in dogma that was ever put into human language; five minutes’ observation of facts will show that men are unequal through a very wide range of variation. FULL ARTICLE by William Graham Sumner
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/10665/equality/
Equality
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“God made man, Sam Colt made man equal.”
If all human beings are equal, then all human beings are
blond-haired / blue-eyed “aryans” – all others are…
“Untermenschen” destined for…
:-/
We know the history…
“The thirst for equality is a characteristic of modern mores.â€
Yet, couldn’t you argue that looking toward natural rights as a proxy for justice/morality is an equivalent form of equality? After all, the doctrine defines certain absolute rights based on establishment of a specific s species—it says because we are all equally human we all should have equal natural rights. Am I defining natural rights incorrectly here?
Perhaps this is an oversimplification, but I thought that an appeal of big government was to make everyone equal, but limited government would limit itself to just treating everyone equally. If the ability to treat everyone equally is only an ideal, what is the purpose of limited government then? Is that too only an impossible dream?
Of course all men aren’t equal in physical and mental abilities. But when talking about political philosophy, not natural science or biology, it is a normative statement to expect that all men be treated equally before the law, as if they have equal rights. That’s what men being equal is supposed to mean.
Michael A. Clem has correctly identified the false premise here.
Epic fail.
Michael A. Clem is correct on what the statement means…equality before the law. But humans are hardly equal in skills, abilities, talents and gifts from one person to another.
I think the important point to take from this article is that people have decided to take the statement “all men are equal” beyond “equality before the law” in order to create unfair regulations and redistribution schemes in order to benefit one group over others. The meaning behind the phrase needs to be reframed to its original intent.
All humans are equal regarding the complete absence of any legitimate claim to entitlement.
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