The Tyranny of Equality

VOLUME XVI, NO. 23 JUNE 5, 1963 THE TYRANNY OF EQUALITY QUALITY versus equality: Which principle shall In the ancient world Jesus of Nazareth and rule our destiny? The current trend toward Socrates became exemplars of the seeker for equalitarian values is out of harmony with the excellence, so towering in stature that they remain great tradition of Western thought, is in fact to be equalled. The parables of Jesus, especially subversive of it, and cannot meet the deeper needs those about masters and servants, typically not of man. only reflect the hierarchical social structure of his day but compare it closely with the nature of the Although Western civilization cannot be spiritual world. characterized in a phrase, perhaps individual fulfillment is its central theme, upon which each Classical Greece, with its incomparable successive era has developed variations. From the cultural achievements, cannot begin to be grasped Classical world to the present one may trace the without a feeling for its love of perfection and its sometimes frayed but unbroken thread of a willingness to sacrifice the lower to the higher. tradition which holds that the high destiny of man "From the hour of their birth," declared Aristotle, is bound up with his quest for excellence, in his "some are marked out for subjection and some for character and in his work. Though as often in the command." Many are shocked today by the breach as in the observance, still it is the ancient Greek practice of "exposing" defective exceptional man whom our tradition honors. Yet infants. Well, today we cherish our defectives today this noble tradition is threatened as never ("No less precious," as the poster slogan has it), before. The enemy? Mass man. By sheer force while the Greeks cherished their best. To each his of numbers the exceptional man is being own. Yet where is our Plato and our Parthenon? overwhelmed and forced to the ground, a dagger If the extraordinary can flourish only at the at his throat. Under the modern avalanche of expense of the ordinary, still the gain may be equalitarian propaganda and institutions we are worth the price. In a deeper sense, however, the swiftly losing sight of the vision which has been efforts of those on all levels contribute to the the glory and the driving force of Western achievements of the great. civilization: the vision of those heroes of the During medieval times, despite the general human spirit who individually, through adversity restriction on new thought imposed by the and suffering, have won through to major Church-dominated society, devoted monastics achievements for mankind and kept alive the maintained the tradition of excellence. Indeed, on tradition of greatness for their fellows to respond all social levels no question was so important as to, each in his own measure. We have thus far the salvation of one's immortal soul. failed to adapt this basically hierarchical, aristocratic conception of man to the changing Between the fourteenth and sixteenth conditions of life in the twentieth century. centuries, when the Renaissance burst upon the medieval world with all the force of a surging Virtually all the great achievements of the river no longer to be contained by its banks and past flowered in societies not equalitarian but dams, a new dignity of man was proclaimed, and aristocratic, with gradations of excellence built with it expanding earthly horizons for him. The into their very structure, each age evolving its Renaissance Man, universal in his talents and own prototype. MANAS Reprint - LEAD ARTICLE 2 confident in his outlook, symbolizes the ideal for Lonely Crowd. The inner-directed personality, his period. oriented to measureable goals of achievement and The seventeenth century saw the triumph of objective criteria, gives way to the other-directed the Puritan spirit, which stressed the sanctity of personality, dependent upon the approval of work and moral striving and has so largely shaped others and occupied with the pleasures of the American character. The Miltonic universe consumption. was of course hierarchical, order being heaven's A second source of the problem lies in first law. collectivism, the ever-increasing trend toward a In the eighteenth century one could look up huge governmental apparatus for controlling the to the rational gentleman of the Enlightenment mushrooming traffic of human beings, products with all his high-principled optimism. and services. Other factors include the population upsurge, the growing interdependence fostered by Yet where, today, is our prototype of the advancing transportation and communications, seeker for excellence—one to whom all can look and the wide appeal of equalitarian ideas up, and to whom men instinctively turn for the themselves. incarnation of their moral ideals? He does not exist. To be sure, our Post-Heroic Age is Our predicament is a logical though developing values and aspirations consistent with unforeseen development of broadly historical itself; the point is that these swerve so sharply forces at work—the impact of new institutions from those of the mainstream of Western values upon human nature—though it is no less critical that they threaten to engulf us in a tidal wave of for all that. Diabolical conspirators are hard to unprincipled mediocrity. In weird caricature of find. The rudderless, wayward drift of modern life the traditional quest for individual fulfillment, we seems the chief villain. now see everywhere a frantic pursuit of creature Man's passage through time resembles a comforts and attempts to gratify superficial whims journey on a great river. If a man cannot choose and artificially stimulated desires—a desperate which stretch he must travel, still he is not grasping at the shadows of identity. helpless. As always, most will drift with the We cannot trace to their probable sources in current, risking the rocks and rapids, the the upheavals of the Renaissance, Reformation, whirlpools and falls; while some few feel and scientific revolution the various tributes which compelled to chart their course and navigate as have fed the mighty river of equalitarianism. best they may, sometimes even heading their craft Somewhat as the scientific revolution seemed to upstream. many to have shattered the concept of a moral It is not enough to plead the "inevitability" of universe, when logically of course it did not and the equalitarian society. Except for those with could not do any such thing, so today does the lingering illusions of Progress, new social forms equalitarian revolution seem to have vanquished must earn their vote of confidence from thinking aristocratic principles, although in reality they are men solely on their own merits. Can the as valid as ever. equalitarian society entertain the highest One cause of our plight is surely triumphant aspirations of man or is it by nature limited to technology, which grinds out goods almost faster meeting his grosser needs? than they can be used, thus rapidly transforming Nor will it do to claim that those advocating us from a nation of inner-directed producers to a the equalitarian society are men of integrity and nation of other-directed consumers, as David high ideals which allow for individual freedom in Riesman describes this character change in The the world they call for. Eloquent pleaders are not Volume XVI, No. 23 MANAS Reprint June 5, 1963 3 necessarily fitted to rule, and often must turn the the limitations of his culture, concludes: "When reins over to those who have mastered the art of someone fails to become autonomous, we can power relationships. Moreover, once launched, very often see what blockages have stood in his movements and institutions begin a life of their way, but when someone succeeds in the same own, quite beyond the control of those nominally overt setting in which others have failed, I myself in charge. The arms race between the United have no ready explanation of this, and am States and Russia is an example. Neither side sometimes tempted to fall back on constitutional "wants" war, neither can benefit from it, yet these or genetic factors—what people of an earlier era facts do not slow the pace toward mutual called the divine spark." annihilation. The ugly truth is, especially to those "But does not our Declaration of who profess faith in reason, that irrational forces Independence state 'All men are created equal'?" play so large a role in human history as to suggest one may object. There is an ambiguity in this what has- been called a "secular doctrine of phrase. That the framers of the Declaration did Original Sin." not themselves take it literally seems clear from Now to define the aristocratic view, that we the nature of the society they later fashioned, may contrast the equalitarian view with it. which proved more republic than democracy. Aristocracy means "rule by the best." The And consider Jefferson's efforts to develop an essential aristocratic position builds upon a frank aristocracy of the intellect. Rather than recognition that men are of very differing native proclaiming an identical potential for everyone, it capacities. It allows for and encourages is more likely that, in the eighteenth century, when differentiation in the level of their achievements, social class differences loomed so large, the believing that the whole tone of life in an organic phrase "All men are created equal" carried a society is elevated by high individual achievement challenge to inherited social privilege. Instead of on the part of its most favored members, in which some persons beginning the race of life with a lesser men can feel they share and by which they head start, owing to an accident of birth, it was may be inspired. Great men look to the stars; proposed to abolish legally sanctioned classes.

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