[October 7, 2022] Consider for a moment that we could restructure our society and consciously eliminate inequality through various policies. Assuming this is a worthy goal, which we could argue, the one thing that would be of value is to look at various countries today and separate them based on inequality measures. We can do this without much effort. So then, what is the result?
Is there a difference between countries with policies designed to remove inequality and those without such policies? We would hope that a consequence of activities from inequality-targeted policies would drive down inequality measures. And this is a reasonable way to test the validity of official policies that could theoretically reduce inequality. But there is zero evidence to support that proposition.
Many, especially those on the political left, which advocate for these compassion-oriented policies designed to reduce inequality, are sensitive to the fact that they don’t work. Of course, the inequality problem is far more complicated than we dare to admit. They are also sensitive to the outcomes of these policies they advocate, which were adopted and tried throughout the twentieth century.
In the 20th century, the Soviet Union implemented many policies with the specific goal of eliminating inequality. Beginning in the 1930s, Stalin and other Soviet leaders announced that their utopia had arrived and that their system of governance had brought about the best for humanity. We now know that it did no such thing. Between 60 and 70 million Soviet citizens died, proving them wrong.
To admit your suffering as a Soviet citizen, if you announced that you were suffering under their system, you were instantly a political criminal. If you were still suffering, something was obviously wrong with you since it certainly could not be state Communism. You were murdered, starved, sent to the gulags, or some other torturous punishment was inflicted on you, and worse, on your family.
The problem with “inequality” is that it is technically impossible to eliminate. The Soviet Union attempted to remove only one disparity – economic disparity – but failed miserably at it. Yet inequality can be measured in many dimensions like race, gender identity, etc. The list is endless and, therefore, impossible to equalize across them. That forces those who want to end inequality to focus on those few dimensions and identify them as the crucial hallmarks of a human being.
But there are more relevant dimensions of humans like economic class, racial identity (how many races and what about ethnicity?), attractiveness, health, physical size, intelligence, temperament, and personality. This explosion of differences creates an impossible scenario to equalize. Even considering those select few, we could ask how many gender identities are there (81 at last count on Facebook) or how many races (no consensus on that either). An infinite number of equality measures can be determined.
That is why we must focus on the individual. An individual focus is the only level of analysis that allows us to consider all our differences. That is what the West discovered centuries ago. That is the basis of Christianity. The basic tenets of philosophical texts reinforce this idea and account for the great strides in science and technology, improvements in our understanding of the world, and improved living conditions worldwide.
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Please read my new book, “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).
Anybody with a single brain cell knows that equality on any scale is impossible., even with guns. This is just a way for lazy people to get ahead.
But but but we have some of the dumbest people on earth as citizens because we’ve dumbed down the schools so much that a dog can pass the tests.
Maybe thru the barrel of a gun.
…. but they keep on believing it. Wait, someone once said that the definition of stupidity is keeping on doing the same thing and expecting different results.
“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”
— Albert Einstein
Thank you ZB22. Might as well be stupidity. 👍
Of course I would get it wrong but u get my meaning.
That is ok Mr J. We all miss the mark sometimes, the idea however that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the bane of us humans. We are fallible, ignorant, defective, and sometimes evil. Let’s never forget that and we will be better off for we will be on guard against those failures.
Nope, not even.
Wow, another spot-on blog post from Gen. Satterfield’s thinking brain. Read what he has written and never ever forget it.
Yes!!!! Yet, I have found that too many young people believe this to be the most important thing that society should strive to achieve and they do so with mountains of evidence that it doesn’t work and when tried, results in horrible evil and death.
“That is why we must focus on the individual. An individual focus is the only level of analysis that allows us to consider all our differences. That is what the West discovered centuries ago. ” – quote from Gen. Satterfield and an amazing yet simple truth.
I do love this website and the opportunity to speak my thoughts in writing here in the leadership forum. So, thanks for that Gen. Satterfield and thanks also for your book, “Our Longest Year in Iraq.” That said, I also believe that trying to get people to be equal is a horrible idea. All of us need something to push against to make us stronger and all our situations are different. That means we all MUST be different. And, that is what makes the world a better place and more exciting. And more challengeing. If we were all equal, we would have nothing to push up against and we would all be weak, lazy, and stupid.
Well said, Marx and Groucho. Max normally makes this kind of point. 😊
… took the words out of my mouth … ha ha ha ah ahhhhh
Well said.
Good points, M&G. 👍👍👍👍👍
Me too. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸😉
Gen. Satterfield, excellent article.
Equality is an ideal but on what basis equality? Equal opportunity? Or equal outcome? How about equal intelligence, which is inborn mostly? My point exactly. Gen. Satterfield makes excellent points here. 💖
Equality is only achieved in a socialist system.
Commie Red, maybe you didn’t read the article by Gen. Satterfield who made it clear that these sort of government mandated equalizing systems destroyed 10s of millions of lives in the 20th century. Experiment conducted, experiment failed.
Commie, once again a suggestion, please don’t use old talking points from your communist puppet masters. You only embarrass yourself and degrade your argument and make it look like first grader logic.
The view that people can be made equal runs counter to our entire diversity jig. We either want folks to be different (which is my position) or equal. You cannot have both. So chose. Or not, because equality will never be achieved except in the eyes of God.
Yep, you can NEVER eliminate inequality.
Short and simple. Too many dimensions of equality to make it work.
— and if you did achieve it, the world would be BORING and implode.