Thoughts and Observations

Hello everyone,

I know I haven’t posted in a very very long time, but recent disucssions on a forum that I visit led me to post this new discussion. The title says it already, it’s about equal opportunities. I will try to explain my views on it, and then I’d love to hear your input. If you completely disagree with me, that’s great, if you do agree with me, that’s great too. Keep the points and convictions coming, I’d love to hear them, and I’d love to learn from them.

Equal opportunities

I love the ideal of equal opportunities for everyone. It sounds like utopia in a lot of aspects. But then there’s this little bell in my head that starts ringing… tring tring… Maybe that’s what Marx/Engels thought too when they came up with their Socialism-movement. History teaches us that socialism failed as a political system and that socially it was quite flawed as well. It suppressed brilliance/excellence and human intellect.

And this is, in fact, where I believe a problem occurs in the light of equal opportunities. People aren’t equal. Some people are smarter, some are stronger, some are more beautiful, some people are good with technology, some people are good with words, some people are excellent athletes, etc. etc. You can keep that list getting longer and longer.

Basically, there will always be people who are better at something than other people. So in that aspect they are not equals of each other. So one person will see opportunities that others don’t. This will create an inbalance in the equality of who we are, and thus also in the opportunies that we create for ourselves and each other.

Can’t we be accepted as equals amongst each other socially then? Well, I don’t believe that what I just described can be put aside. It’s part of who we are socially. So I believe that equality, how beautiful it may sound, is an illusion. That we’re not equal, in my opinion, however, doesn’t mean that we don’t all deserve the same respect. And I know that I used the term better in my point, but in fact, I don’t really think better or worse as a value/judgement is the right term. Some people are merely better than others in a certain task because their tools (brain, body, financial status, whatever) is better equipped.

I can hear you think: ’so he does believe in equality on some level?’ No I don’t really. Maybe it’s a contradiction in my line of thinking, but I believe we can deserve equal respect without being equal. I don’t really see it happening any time soon, but that’s what I personally believe in.

Another reason why I don’t believe equal opportunities are going to happen is the competitive nature of the human race. Our instinct for survival is remarkably strong. We all use it a lot more than we are aware of. Some people confuse this instinct with selfishness or egocentrism, but those are easily different like night and day. But the human instinct makes us competitive and this creates a climate in which excellence/brilliance gets rewarded. We appreciate when someone does something useful, intelligent, entertaining or something that just baffles us. I’m not saying that the rewards are always in the right proportions because often they aren’t, but in essence it is how it works.

Which leads me to my next point. Equality and equal opportunities also have to do with rewards and financial status. There’s an injust inbalance in the financial status in this world. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, generally. This is partially because of the free market system that is in place in most areas of today’s world. It’s a right and a system that we fought for and that we cherish, and for a good reason, because it opens up possibilities for us and it helps us to develop our societies and technologies even further. It helps create a climate in which we can develop and evolve (through excellence/brilliance/intelligence, which thus will get rewarded). If we want to go back to dividing financials equally to start creating equal opportunities, we venture into the realm of socialism quite quickly. And as I said, history tells us that is a very flawed system.

And then my last point, lets say we start with a blank slate (theoretically of course) and we all start from the same point, which basically gives us an equal status and equal opportunities. Then still we will all develop in our own way (simply because we are all different) and where someone will flourish intellectually, someone else might not. Someone might be able to do tough work, where someone else might not be able to do that. Slowly these differences will lead to inequality in status and opportunities.

So where theoretically equal opportunities are an admirable ideal, I just don’t believe it’s realistic, nor do I think it would really be good for the world. Maybe we should try to figure out a way to come close to it, by at least finding equal respect and acceptance for each other. It might not be equality or serve for equal opportunities, but what it does create is a universal connection between people.

Instead of seeing the differences it emphasizes what we have in common, because if we do not focus on why we aren’t equal, but focus on what we have in common, we can find common goals and common developments, and we can all work together in reaching those goals and making those developments happen. And this, I believe, is what we should really be working towards.