Leaving digital mode

It will have occurred, even to the casual observer, that, besides trying to keep things closer to home, our generally accepted ideas of "equality" are ultimately intertwined with other notions, like "responsibility", which, truth be told, are not always applied in a consistent way. This isn't without it problems, for it does create – within us, and around us – an air of uncertainty and confusion that most of us, quite honestly, would much rather not have to deal with. The problem is, we can try to ignore it, but it won't go away.

What I like about the notion of "equality" the most is that it is, to phrase it in modern terms, a digital concept. In the sense that we've been using it here, in particular, either the other person is your equal or not. This, of course, has nothing to with whether s/he is smarter than you or whether you can run faster or whether s/he has been successful with her latest diet and you haven't. That's not what I'm talking about at all. It is – or at least should be – clear to everyone that everyone is in some way unique, that is, different from everybody else. Even identical twins are not 100% identical. What we need to keep in mind is that being different has nothing to do with being better or worse (which is how we tend to frame "equality". What is different is, well, just different, no more, no less.

If you have to (or if you feel the need to) qualify the term in any way, then we're not talking about the same thing. To me, for example, I take (almost all of) Mr. Jefferson's words literally, and as I believe deep in his heart he intended, that all [human beings ... not just literally "men"] are created equal. Granted, it took lots of folks well over a hundred years to "get it", and some haven't got it yet, and while that may be reason to give up hope, I'm not quite that far yet, but that's another story.

It's just one of those things: it is, or it isn't; we are, or we aren't. If we aren't, of course, everything I've been saying up until now is pretty much out the window. There are some ideas we just need to take seriously, whether we like it or not.