In celebration of the 4th of July, what could be more appropriate than the recalling of these famous words of Thomas Jefferson: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”! I can’t remember when I first heard these words, but what impressed me for many years was the word “equal”. As we would say today: “All human beings are equal, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity or nationality”. Still, experience really is the master teacher, and with time, I began to question to validity of this phrase on equality. When I was in high school, being a member of the football team was so prestigious that I decided to join the squad. Admittedly, I wasn’t physically predestined for the sport, measuring a height of 5 ft. 7 in. and weighing 130 lbs., but if we are all created equal–I reasoned–, I should be able to compensate for my deficiencies in some way. To say the very least, it was a humbly experience; whatever “equality” might mean, it certainly did not apply to this situation. And since there was at that time no “affirmative action” that might catapult me into the NFL, I gave up my ambitions in this arena. My second revelation about equality came when I was a student in engineering and attended group study sessions. To be sure, group sessions can be helpful under some circumstances, but for a student who already understands the material, as I usually did, it turns out to be a teaching session rather than a study session among equals. Once again, it was proving difficult to empirically verify this idea of equality.
In reflecting further on Jefferson’s statement, my attention was soon drawn to the word “self-evident”: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” The fact that a triangle has three sides is self-evident. That two plus two equals four usually counts as self-evident. And that there is no middle value between true and false (tertium non datur) is a classic example of self-evidence. But the proposition that all human beings are equal does not seem to fall into this category of self-evidence. In fact, the curious notions of the “Flat Earth Society” would seem to be more self-evident than Jefferson’s insistence on the equality of human beings. What is even more disturbing, however, is this: Jefferson’s statement not only lacks self-evidence, it lacks any evidence whatsoever. In short, the statement is simply not true. We are not all equal! I do not intend to speculate at length on the reasons why Jefferson put such a statement in the Declaration of Independence, but rather I would like to point out the diverging ways in which the Democrats and the Republicans have dealt with this dilemma.
Realizing that all human beings are not created equal, liberal Democrats have set out to create the equality that obviously has not yet been created. The most recent example is the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States on “Affirmative Action”– a decision which in effect aims at leveling differences in order to produce equality, overlooking the obvious fact that differences remain regardless of court decisions. Given my weight and height, I was never going to be a major league player. Differences remain. Furthermore, behind every attempt to create equality, be it in sports or in academics, there lies the inevitable truth that forced inclusion results in mediocrity. The university is, in my opinion, first and foremost an institution of learning, not an instrument of social change. We grade research papers for the simple reason that all students are not equal either in ability or performance, and it is the responsibility of an institution of learning to promote the intellectually most talented of our youth “regardless of gender, race, ethnicity or nationality”. When Lawrence Summers was President of Harvard University, he was concerned about a related problem and suggested in one of his speeches that the university should re-evaluate its policy of giving preference to female candidates for academic positions over their male counterparts who had superior credentials. Anyone who has followed the story knows what happened; Lawrence Summers is no longer President of Harvard. Among liberals who are desperately trying to create equality through inclusion and diversity, requesting empirical evidence for the success of their policies is taboo. Not only will the evidence never be presented, but the job security of the questioner will be placed in jeopardy. In the minds of liberals, the success of “creating equality” is considered to be “self-evident”!
Conservative Republicans have handled the matter of equality in a totally different manner. Instead of recognizing that equality is not a reality in our world and setting out to create it as the Democrats have done, the Republicans have quietly adopted the libertarian economic views of the British philosopher John Locke, who himself assumed an original equality of all human beings. In the spirit of Locke’s “Second Treatise of Government” (1690), one can easily argue that life is analogous to a Monopoly Game. We all start at the same point on the board, with the same amount of money and the same opportunities. Some succeed, others fail; it’s simply a matter of hard work and determination. Since we are all created equal, each and every one of us has had a fair chance to succeed in life, and therefore those who have failed must bear the sole responsibility for their destinies. But life is not a Monopoly Game, and all human beings are not created equal. Those who are handicapped should be assisted by those who are not. Those who lose their jobs at no fault of their own should be supported by those of us who enjoy a stable income. Those who cannot afford an education should be helped financially. Assisting each other is a necessary condition for promoting the common good in society, but such assistance should be based on the idea of commensurability, not equality. We are not all equal. Thus, the common good is only served when our position in society is commensurate with our talents and abilities.
Of course, it is possible that I have missed the main point of Jefferson’s statement. Perhaps he meant that all human beings are created equal before the law. Such a view I could heartily support. It even strikes me as self-evident that we should all be equal in this sense. Unfortunately, the empirical evidence is still lacking! All of us are not held to the same standard before the law. On this 4th of July, that might be a goal worth setting. Let us strive together for equality before the law and commensurability in society.
Jack Brush is a Villager and author of “In Search of the Common Good: Guideposts for Concerned Citizens.” Learn more at www.jackebrush.com