“
Genuine equality means not treating everyone the same, but attending equally to everyone’s different needs.
”
”
Terry Eagleton (Why Marx Was Right)
“
Equality is treating everyone the same. But equity is taking differences into account, so everyone has a chance to succeed.
”
”
Jodi Picoult (Small Great Things)
“
In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.
”
”
Theodore Roosevelt
“
human beings are human beings, just treat everyone like that.
”
”
Hayley Williams
“
To treat everyone equally is offensive, because it fails to recognize anyone as an individual.
”
”
Jarod Kintz (This Book Has No Title)
“
Because my mum and dad brought me up to believe that people are different but equal. And that I should treat everyone, no matter who, with the same respect I'd like to be shown.
”
”
Malorie Blackman (Knife Edge (Noughts & Crosses, #2))
“
The Jamange line DOESN'T DO peer pressure. It treats everyone as a human-being and only really believes in equality, love and fairness
”
”
Ashley S. Clancy (The Jamange Line)
“
When you begin with the premise "I treat everyone equally," you have already blinkered yourself from seeing where you don't, or can't, or shouldn't. There is no way to treat two people equally, because they are each unique, with respective strengths and weaknesses.
”
”
Anthony Ravenscroft (Polyamory: Roadmaps for the Clueless & Hopeful)
“
Americans are pushy, obnoxious, neurotic, crass - anything and everything - the full catastrophe as our friend Zorba might say. Canadians are none of that. The way you might fear a cow sitting down in the middle of the street during rush hour, that's how I fear Canadians. To Canadians, everyone is equal. Joni Mitchell is interchangeable with a secretary at open-mic night. Frank Gehry is no greater than a hack pumping out McMansions on AutoCAD. John Candy is no funnier than Uncle Lou when he gets a couple of beers in him. No wonder the only Canadians anyone's ever heard of are the ones who have gotten the hell out. Anyone with talent who stayed would be flattened under an avalanche of equality. The thing Canadians don't understand is that some people are extraordinary and should be treated as such.
”
”
Maria Semple (Where'd You Go, Bernadette)
“
Part of the problem is that we tend to think that equality is about treating everyone the same, when it’s not. It’s about fairness. It’s about equity of access.
”
”
Judith Heumann (Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist)
“
That fairy tale that all humans are equal before the law and in the eyes of God is a lie, Camilo. I hope you don’t buy into it. Neither the law nor God treats everyone the same.
”
”
Isabel Allende (Violeta)
“
But really it’s condescending and patronizing not to make fun of someone because they’re old or stupid or crippled or morbidly obese. Banged up people don’t want your pity. They just want to be treated like everyone else. Mockery, when done without prejudice or discretion, can be a form of respect. It’s the closest we’ll ever come to true equality.
”
”
Paul Neilan (Apathy and Other Small Victories)
“
Treat everyone equal. We are all born the same and die the same.
”
”
Abi Ketner (Branded (Sinners, #1))
“
Equality says we treat everyone the same, regardless of headwinds or tailwinds. Equity says we give people what they need to have the same access and opportunities as others, taking into account the headwinds they face, which may mean differential treatment for some groups.
”
”
Dolly Chugh (The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias)
“
It wasn`t very useful preparation for the real world: turning all these graduates loose every year with the expectation that life will be fair and everyone will be treated equally.
”
”
Marilyn Manson
“
So why don’t Americans cheat? Because they think that their system is legitimate. People accept authority when they see that it treats everyone equally, when it is possible to speak up and be heard, and when there are rules in place that assure you that tomorrow you won’t be treated radically different from how you are treated today. Legitimacy is based on fairness, voice and predictability, and the U.S. government, as much as Americans like to grumble about it, does a pretty good job of meeting all three standards. Pg. 293
”
”
Malcolm Gladwell (David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants)
“
There was no hatred. No anger. No fear in Gander. Only the spirit of community. Here, everyone was equal, everyone was treated the same. Here, the basic humanity of man wasn’t just surviving but thriving
”
”
Jim DeFede (The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland)
“
Why can't everyone be treated equally? Forgotten of what they did wrong, but remember their rights? Why can't the whole world just get along?
”
”
Fei loves Meng
“
If what we are talking about is blessing an anything-goes ethic in a morally libertine culture, I stand utterly opposed, as I have throughout my career. But if what we are talking about is carving out space for serious committed Christians who happen to be gay or lesbian, to participate in society as equals, in church as kin, and in the blessings and demands of covenant on the same terms as everyone else, I now think that has nothing to do with cultural, ecclesial and moral decline, and everything to do with treating people the way Christ did.
”
”
David P. Gushee (Changing Our Mind)
“
We are the bourgeoisie—the third estate, as they call us now—and what we want is a nobility of merit, nothing more. We don't recognize this lazy nobility we now have, we reject our present class hierarchy. We want all men to be free and equal, for no one to be someone else's subject, but for all to be subject to the law. There should be an end of privileges and arbitrary power. Everyone should be treated equally as a child of the state, and just as there are no longer any middlemen between the layman and his God, so each citizen should stand in direct relation to the state. We want freedom of the press, of employment, of commerce. We want all men to compete without any special privileges, and the only crown should be the crown of merit.
”
”
Thomas Mann (Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family)
“
Men are not born equal in themselves, so I think it beneath a man to postulate that they are. If I thought myself as good as Sokrates I should be a fool; and if, not really believing it, I asked you to make me happy by assuring me of it, you would rightly despise me. So why should I insult my fellow-citizens by treating them as fools and cowards? A man who thinks himself as good as everyone else will be at no pains to grow better. On the other hand, I might think myself as good as Sokrates, and even persuade other fools to agree with me; but under a democracy, Sokrates is there in the Agora to prove me wrong. I want a city where I can find my equals and respect my betters, whoever they are; and where no one can tell me to swallow a lie because it is expedient, or some other man's will.
”
”
Mary Renault (The Last of the Wine)
“
America from the late 1960s on, equality came to mean not just that the law should treat everyone identically but that your beliefs about anything are equally as true as anyone else’s.
”
”
Kurt Andersen (Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History)
“
Equality is treating everyone the same. But equity is taking differences into account, so everyone has a chance to succeed.” I look at her. “The first one sounds fair. The second one is fair.
”
”
Jodi Picoult (Small Great Things)
“
As a society we should commit to according everyone equal rights despite the differences that exist among individuals. If we aspire to treat all individuals with respect regardless of the extraordinary differences that exist among individuals within a population, it should not be so much more of an effort to accommodate the smaller but still significant average differences across populations.
”
”
David Reich (Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past)
“
White feminists have to do what they expect of men: to separate the act from the person and look at racism as they look at sexism, as a structural problem that can only begin to be solved when they stop putting their hurt feelings ahead of our material harm. It is not enough for white women to have their hearts in the right place or to claim they don’t see color and treat everyone equally. Feminism must commit to an explicitly anti-racist platform. And that means severing themselves from their historical and emotional attachment to inherent innocence and goodness.
”
”
Ruby Hamad (White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color)
“
What should worry us is not the number of people who oppose us, but how good their reasons are for doing so. We should therefore divert our attention away from the presence of unpopularity to the explanations for it. It may be frightening to hear that a high proportion of a community holds us to be wrong, but before abandoning our position, we should consider the method by which their conclusions have been reached. It is the soundness of their method of thinking that should determine the weight we give to their disapproval. We seem afflicted by the opposite tendency: to listen to everyone, to be upset by every unkind word and sarcastic observation. We fail to ask ourselves the cardinal and most consoling question: on what basis has this dark censure been made? We treat with equal seriousness the objections of the critic who has thought rigorously and honestly and those of the critic who has acted out of misanthropy and envy.
”
”
Alain de Botton (The Consolations of Philosophy)
“
Are white people only able to talk to me if they’ve trained their minds not to see me as black? Is the only path to acceptance not breaking the fantasy that white people have of everyone’s equality? I’ve never thought I was anything but human. My black womanhood does not cancel out my humanity. These are not facts that repel each other. Physiologically, of course, we are all human. Socially, we dehumanize people of color daily. We judge their clothes, speech, hair, and education level as criteria for whether they have earned the right to be treated with common decency. We use these same criteria to judge if they deserve to die at the hands of law enforcement, or men like George Zimmerman. Because the question that white people are asking is not Why can’t we all be human?, but Why can’t you be like us?
”
”
Morgan Jerkins (This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America)
“
To be good, is to be like God. Our purpose in life is to try and reach that standard. We will always fall short, but in our lifetime if we try our best to make a world where everyone is treated equally with respect, empathy, and compassion, the big payoff is that we will be rewarded with that exact thing in Heaven.
”
”
Lewis N. Roe (From A To Theta: Taking The Tricky Subject Of Religion And Explaining Why It Makes Sense In A Way We Can All Understand)
“
Strangers you meet may be angels hiding behind a disguise. Always treat people you meet with respect, for everyone's equal in God's eyes. ....Sometimes in life, we need a special person to listen while we talk. A special person who will not discourage or judge, But encourage us where do we go..who would not let me prove who and what I am.
”
”
Kunaji
“
Equality is treating everyone the same. But equity is taking differences into account, so everyone has a chance to succeed
”
”
Jodi Picoult (Small Great Things)
“
There is a dream, a grand idealism, that mixed-race people are the hope for change, the peacekeepers, we are the people with an other understanding, with an invested interest in everyone being treated equally as we have a foot and a loyalty in many camps, with all shades. We are like love bombs planted in the minefield of black and white. It is as if our parents intended to make us, with courage, and on purpose, as vessels of empathy, bridges for the cultural divide and diplomats for diversity and equality." (from "The Good Immigrant" by Nikesh Shukla)
”
”
Nikesh Shukla (The Good Immigrant)
“
The Christian up to his eyes in trouble can take comfort from the knowledge that in God’s kindly plan it all has a positive purpose, to further his sanctification. In this world, royal children have to undergo extra training and discipline which other children escape, in order to fit them for their high destiny. It is the same with the children of the King of kings. The clue to understanding all his dealings with them is to remember that throughout their lives he is training them for what awaits them, and chiseling them into the image of Christ. Sometimes the chiseling process is painful and the discipline irksome, but then the Scripture reminds us: “The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons . . . No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Heb 12:6-7,11). Only the person who has grasped this can make sense of Romans 8:28, “All things work together for good to them that love God” (KJV); equally, only he can maintain his assurance of sonship against satanic assault as things go wrong. But he who has mastered the truth of adoption both retains assurance and receives blessing in the day of trouble: this is one aspect of faith’s victory over the world. Meanwhile, however, the point stands that the Christian’s primary motive for holy living is not negative, the hope (vain!) that hereby he may avoid chastening, but positive, the impulse to show his love and gratitude to his adopting God by identifying himself with the Father’s will for him.
”
”
J.I. Packer (Knowing God)
“
Meanwhile, whiteness twiddles its thumbs with feigned innocence and shallow apologies. Diversity gets treated like a passing trend, a friendly group project in which everyone takes on equal risks and rewards. In the mind of whiteness, half-baked efforts at diversity are enough, because the status quo is fine. It is better than slavery, better than Jim Crow. What more could Black people possibly ask than this - to not be overtly subject to the white will? "Is there more?" white innocence asks before bursting into tears at the possibility that we would date question its sincerity.
”
”
Austin Channing Brown (I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness)
“
Equality is treating everyone the same. But equity is taking differences into account, so everyone has a chance to succeed.” I look at her. “The first one sounds fair. The second one is fair. It’s equal to give a printed test to two kids. But if one’s blind and one’s sighted, that’s not true. You ought to give one a Braille test and one a printed test, which both cover the same material.
”
”
Jodi Picoult (Small Great Things)
“
If it were possible to treat everyone well, then anybody would do that. But sometimes we have to decide on an order. Liking everyone the same means that you don't like any one person. At least that's what I think.
”
”
Fuyumi Ono (魔性の子 [Mashō no Ko])
“
The act of our creation is equal for all of us. The results of our creation are not. The goal of our Founding Fathers was to treat everyone equally under the law, and as such, provide for equality of opportunity, not results.
”
”
A.E. Samaan
“
Dignity, self-respect, the right to be treated as an equal, that’s what everyone wants. But Du Bois knew that those who are alienated from the community of man because of color (or, one might add, because of sexual orientation or gender) have a much harder path, because the alienated, the differentiated, the misfits of society must bear the burden of a single unspoken question on the lips of even the most polite members of society: “What does it feel like to be a problem?
”
”
Amy Ellis Nutt (Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family)
“
At our one local movie theater, blacks and whites had to sit apart—the blacks in the balcony. My mother and father urged my brother and me to bring home our black playmates, to consider them equals, and to respect the religious views of our friends, whatever they were. My brother’s best friend was black, and when they went to the movies, Neil sat with him in the balcony. My mother always taught us: “Treat thy neighbor as you would want your neighbor to treat you,” and “Judge everyone by how they act, not what they are.
”
”
Ronald Reagan (An American Life: The Autobiography)
“
Democracy does not enable the majority to treat the minority however it wishes! Our national policy, the values of the five-hued flag, apply to everyone equally, and that was the basis for our constitution! How can we even pretend to be a Republic if we can’t even follow that?!
”
”
Asato Asato (86—EIGHTY-SIX, Vol. 1 [Light Novel] (86 [Light Novel], #1))
“
When I first went to Rwanda, I was reading a book called Civil War, which had been receiving great critical acclaim. Writing from an immediate post-Cold War perspective, the author, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, a German, observed, “The most obvious sign of the end of the bipolar world order are the thirty or forty civil wars being waged openly around the globe,” and he set out to inquire what they were all about. This seemed promising until I realized that Enzensberger wasn’t interested in the details of those wars. He treated them all as a single phenomenon and, after a few pages, announced: “What gives today’s civil wars a new and terrifying slant is the fact that they are waged without stakes on either side, that they are wars about nothing at all.” In the old days, according to Enzensberger—in Spain in the 1930s or the United States in the 1860s—people used to kill and die for ideas, but now “violence has separated itself from ideology,” and people who wage civil wars just kill and die in an anarchic scramble for power. In these wars, he asserted, there is no notion of the future; nihilism rules; “all political thought, from Aristotle and Machiavelli to Marx and Weber, is turned upside down,” and “all that remains is the Hobbesian ur-myth of the war of everyone against everyone else.” That such a view of distant civil wars offers a convenient reason to ignore them may explain its enormous popularity in our times. It would be nice, we may say, if the natives out there settled down, but if they’re just fighting for the hell of it, it’s not my problem. But it is our problem. By denying the particularity of the peoples who are making history, and the possibility that they might have politics, Enzensberger mistakes his failure to recognize what is at stake in events for the nature of those events. So he sees chaos—what is given off, not what’s giving it off—and his analysis begs the question: when, in fact, there are ideological differences between two warring parties, how are we to judge them? In the case of Rwanda, to embrace the idea that the civil war was a free-for-all—in which everyone is at once equally legitimate and equally illegitimate—is to ally oneself with Hutu Power’s ideology of genocide as self-defense.
”
”
Philip Gourevitch (We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families)
“
My parents constantly drummed into me the importance of judging people as individuals. There was no more grievous sin at our household than a racial slur or other evidence of religious or racial intolerance. A lot of it, I think, was because my dad had learned what discrimination was like firsthand. He’d grown up in an era when some stores still had signs at their door saying, NO DOGS OR IRISHMEN ALLOWED. When my brother and I were growing up, there were still ugly tumors of racial bigotry in much of America, including the corner of Illinois where we lived. At our one local movie theater, blacks and whites had to sit apart—the blacks in the balcony. My mother and father urged my brother and me to bring home our black playmates, to consider them equals, and to respect the religious views of our friends, whatever they were. My brother’s best friend was black, and when they went to the movies, Neil sat with him in the balcony. My mother always taught us: “Treat thy neighbor as you would want your neighbor to treat you,” and “Judge everyone by how they act, not what they are.” Once my father checked into a hotel during a shoe-selling trip and a clerk told him: “You’ll like it here, Mr. Reagan, we don’t permit a Jew in the place.” My father, who told us the story later, said he looked at the clerk angrily and picked up his suitcase and left. “I’m a Catholic,” he said. “If it’s come to the point where you won’t take Jews, then some day you won’t take me either.” Because it was the only hotel in town, he spent the night in his car during a winter blizzard and I think it may have led to his first heart attack.
”
”
Ronald Reagan (An American Life: The Autobiography)
“
The way you might fear a cow sitting down in the middle of the street during rush hour, that’s how I fear Canadians. To Canadians, everyone is equal. Joni Mitchell is interchangeable with a secretary at open-mic night. Frank Gehry is no greater than a hack pumping out McMansions on AutoCAD. John Candy is no funnier than Uncle Lou when he gets a couple of beers in him. No wonder the only Canadians anyone’s ever heard of are the ones who have gotten the hell out. Anyone with talent who stayed would be flattened under an avalanche of equality. The thing Canadians don’t understand is that some people are extraordinary and should be treated as such.
”
”
Maria Semple (Where'd You Go, Bernadette)
“
Democracy as we have tried it started out on the wrong foot. We took the Christian scriptures that say that everybody is equal in the sight of God and made it to mean that everybody is inferior in the sight of God. And this is a parody of mysticism. Because originally, mysticism meant that, from the standpoint of God, all people are divine, which is a far different thing. So this is why all bureaucracies are rude, why police are rude, why you are made to wait in lines for everything, and why everyone is treated as some kind of crook. And a society like this, that views everybody as inferior, turns quickly into fascism because of its terror of the outsider.
”
”
Alan W. Watts (Out of Your Mind: Tricksters, Interdependence, and the Cosmic Game of Hide and Seek)
“
Equality is treating everyone the same. But equity is taking differences into account, so everyone has a chance to succeed.” I look at her. “The first one sounds fair. The second one is fair. It’s equal to give a printed test to two kids. But if one’s blind and one’s sighted, that’s not true. You ought to give one a Braille test and one a printed test, which both cover the same material
”
”
Jodi Picoult (Small Great Things)
“
Steven Alm, a judge who devised a “probation with enforcement” program, summed up the reason for the program’s success: “When the system isn’t consistent and predictable, when people are punished randomly, they think, My probation officer doesn’t like me, or, Someone’s prejudiced against me, rather than seeing that everyone who breaks a rule is treated equally, in precisely the same way.
”
”
Steven Pinker (The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined)
“
We have the ability to treat everyone equally under law; we have the ability to create governments to protect individual rights. But we don’t have the ability to guarantee that even two kids the same age living on the same street will start from the same point; two children growing up in the same family don’t even start from the same point. We certainly don’t have the ability to ensure that everyone ends at the same point.
”
”
Ben Shapiro (How to Destroy America in Three Easy Steps)
“
It is never easy for any leader to choose between differentiation and equality. You are condemned either way. When you treat everyone equally, you are considered just by majority as equality benefits below average people and they seem to always be in majority. At the same time, you are also condemned because you can’t produce results with people having a crab mentality. However, if you choose to reward the excellence and punish the non-performer, you achieve the desired results but get condemned for being unfair, unjust, cruel and Darwinian.
”
”
Awdhesh Singh
“
Each of us has been made “a little lower than the angels.” What an incomprehensible compliment! But it’s not only a compliment; it’s also a responsibility, for our special status equalizes us with other people in the eyes of God. The Lord has exalted not only me or some special group; God has exalted everyone. It’s the people of Burkina Faso and Niger and Guyana and Haiti. It’s people who never learned to read and write or who live on fifty cents a day. All human beings have been made a little lower than the angels, and we have a responsibility to treat them accordingly.
”
”
Jimmy Carter (Through the Year with Jimmy Carter: 366 Daily Meditations from the 39th President)
“
Louis XIV was a very proud and self-confident man. He had such and such mistresses, and such and such ministers, and he governed France badly. The heirs of Louis XIV were also weak men, and also governed France badly. They also had such and such favourites and such and such mistresses. Besides which, certain persons were at this time writing books. By the end of the eighteenth century there gathered in Paris two dozen or so persons who started saying that all men were free and equal. Because of this in the whole of France people began to slaughter and drown each other. These people killed the king and a good many others. At this time there was a man of genius in France – Napoleon. He conquered everyone everywhere, i.e. killed a great many people because he was a great genius; and, for some reason, he went off to kill Africans, and killed them so well, and was so clever and cunning, that, having arrived in France, he ordered everyone to obey him, which they did. Having made himself Emperor he again went to kill masses of people in Italy, Austria and Prussia. And there too he killed a great many. Now in Russia there was the Emperor Alexander, who decided to reestablish order in Europe, and therefore fought wars with Napoleon. But in the year ’07 he suddenly made friends with him, and in the year ’11 quarrelled with him again, and they both again began to kill a great many people. And Napoleon brought six hundred thousand men to Russia and conquered Moscow. But then he suddenly ran away from Moscow, and then the Emperor Alexander, aided by the advice of Stein and others, united Europe to raise an army against the disturber of her peace. All Napoleon’s allies suddenly became his enemies; and this army marched against Napoleon, who had gathered new forces. The allies conquered Napoleon, entered Paris, forced Napoleon to renounce the throne, and sent him to the island of Elba, without, however, depriving him of the title of Emperor, and showing him all respect, in spite of the fact that five years before, and a year after, everyone considered him a brigand and beyond the law. Thereupon Louis XVIII, who until then had been an object of mere ridicule to both Frenchmen and the allies, began to reign. As for Napoleon, after shedding tears before the Old Guard, he gave up his throne, and went into exile. Then astute statesmen and diplomats, in particular Talleyrand, who had managed to sit down before anyone else in the famous armchair1 and thereby to extend the frontiers of France, talked in Vienna, and by means of such talk made peoples happy or unhappy. Suddenly the diplomats and monarchs almost came to blows. They were almost ready to order their troops once again to kill each other; but at this moment Napoleon arrived in France with a battalion, and the French, who hated him, all immediately submitted to him. But this annoyed the allied monarchs very much and they again went to war with the French. And the genius Napoleon was defeated and taken to the island of St Helena, having suddenly been discovered to be an outlaw. Whereupon the exile, parted from his dear ones and his beloved France, died a slow death on a rock, and bequeathed his great deeds to posterity. As for Europe, a reaction occurred there, and all the princes began to treat their peoples badly once again.
”
”
Isaiah Berlin (Russian Thinkers)
“
The good/ bad frame is a false dichotomy. All people hold prejudices, especially across racial lines in a society deeply divided by race. I can be told that everyone is equal by my parents, I can have friends of color, and I may not tell racist jokes. Yet I am still affected by the forces of racism as a member of a society in which racism is the bedrock. I will still be seen as white, treated as white, and experience life as a white person. My identity, personality, interests, and investments will develop from a white perspective. I will have a white worldview and a white frame of reference. In a society in which race clearly matters, our race profoundly shapes us.
”
”
Robin DiAngelo (White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism)
“
We are not gods, and simply do not have the capacity to rectify imbalances of innate individual qualities. We have the ability to treat everyone equally under law; we have the ability to create governments to protect individual rights. But we don’t have the ability to guarantee that even two kids the same age living on the same street will start from the same point; two children growing up in the same family don’t even start from the same point. We certainly don’t have the ability to ensure that everyone ends at the same point. Setting up all Americans as either purveyors of a hierarchical and discriminatory system or as victims of that system, we disintegrate the ties that bind Americans together.
”
”
Ben Shapiro (How to Destroy America in Three Easy Steps)
“
It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle. Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags and with the red and black flag of the Anarchists; every wall was scrawled with the hammer and sickle and with the initials of the revolutionary parties; almost every church had been gutted and its images burnt. Churches here and there were being systematically demolished by gangs of workmen. Every shop and cafe had an inscription saying that it had been collectivized; even the bootblacks had been collectivized and their boxes painted red and black. Waiters and shop-walkers looked you in the face and treated you as an equal. Servile and even ceremonial forms of speech had temporarily disappeared. Nobody said 'Señor' or 'Don' or even 'Usted'; everyone called everyone else 'Comrade' or 'Thou', and said 'Salud!' instead of 'Buenos días'. Tipping had been forbidden by law since the time of Primo de Rivera; almost my first experience was receiving a lecture from a hotel manager for trying to tip a lift-boy. There were no private motor-cars, they had all been commandeered, and the trams and taxis and much of the other transport were painted red and black. The revolutionary posters were everywhere, flaming from the walls in clean reds and blues that made the few remaining advertisements look like daubs of mud. Down the Ramblas, the wide central artery of the town where crowds of people streamed constantly to and from, the loud-speakers were bellowing revolutionary songs all day and far into the night. And it was the aspect of the crowds that was the queerest thing of all. In outward appearance it was a town in which the wealthy classes had practically ceased to exist. Except for a small number of women and foreigners there were no 'well-dressed' people at all. Practically everyone wore rough working-class clothes, or blue overalls or some variant of militia uniform. All this was queer and moving. There was much in this that I did not understand, in some ways I did not even like it, but I recognized it immediately as a state of affairs worth fighting for...so far as one could judge the people were contented and hopeful. There was no unemployment, and the price of living was still extremely low; you saw very few conspicuously destitute people, and no beggars except the gypsies. Above all, there was a belief in the revolution and the future, a feeling of having suddenly emerged into an era of equality and freedom. Human beings were trying to behave as human beings and not as cogs in the capitalist machine.
”
”
George Orwell (Homage to Catalonia)
“
To anyone who had been there since the beginning it probably seemed even in December or January that the revolutionary period was ending; but when one came straight from England the aspect of Barcelona was something startling and overwhelming. It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle. Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists; every wall was scrawled with the hammer and sickle and with the initials of the revolutionary parties; almost every church had been gutted and its images burnt. Churches here and there were being systematically demolished by gangs of workman. Every shop and cafe had an inscription saying that it had been collectivised;
even the bootblacks had been collectivized and their boxes painted red and black. Waiters and shop-walkers looked you in the
face and treated you as an equal. Servile and even ceremonial forms of speech had temporarily disappeared. Nobody said
'Sen~or' or 'Don' ort even 'Usted'; everyone called everyone else 'Comrade' or 'Thou', and said 'Salud!' instead of 'Buenos
dias'. Tipping had been forbidden by law since the time of Primo de Rivera; almost my first experience was receiving a lecture
from a hotel manager for trying to tip a lift-boy. There were no private motor-cars, they had all been commandeered, and the
trams and taxis and much of the other transport were painted red and black. The revolutionary posters were everywhere,
flaming from the walls in clean reds and blues that made the few remaining advertisements look like daubs of mud. Down the
Ramblas, the wide central artery of the town where crowds of people streamed constantly to and fro, the loud-speakers were
bellowing revolutionary songs all day and far into the night. And it was the aspect of the crowds that was the queerest thing of
all. In outward appearance it was a town in which the wealthy classes had practically ceased to exist. Except for a small
number of women and foreigners there were no 'well-dressed' people at all. Practically everyone wore rough working-class
clothes, or blue overalls or some variant of militia uniform. All this was queer and moving. There was much in this that I did not
understand, in some ways I did not not even like it, but I recognized it immediately as a state of affairs worth fighting for. Also, I
believed that things were as they appeared, that this was really a workers' State and that the entire bourgeoisie had either fled,
been killed or voluntarily come over to the workers' side; I did not realise that great numbers of well-to-do bourgeois were
simply lying low and disguising themselves as proletarians for the time being.
”
”
George Orwell (Homage to Catalonia)
“
The communists believe that they have found the path to deliverance from our evils. According to them, man is wholly good and is well-disposed to his neighbour; but the institution of private property has corrupted his nature. The ownership of private wealth gives the individual power, and with it the temptation to ill-treat his neighbour; while the man who is excluded from possession is bound to rebel in hostility against his oppressor. If private property were abolished, all wealth held in common, and everyone allowed to share in the enjoyment of it, ill-will and hostility would disappear among men. Since everyone’s needs would be satisfied, no one would have any reason to regard another as his enemy; all would willingly undertake the work that was necessary.I have no concern with any economic criticisms of the communist system; I cannot enquire into whether the abolition of private property is expedient or advantageous. But I am able to recognize that the psychological premisses on which the system is based are an untenable illusion. In abolishing private property we deprive the human love of aggression of one of its instruments, certainly a strong one, though certainly not the strongest; but we have in no way altered the differences in power and influence which are misused by aggressiveness, nor have we altered anything in its nature. Aggressiveness was not created by property. It reigned almost without limit in primitive times, when property was still very scanty, and it already shows itself in the nursery almost before property has given up its primal, anal form; it forms the basis of every relation of affection and love among people (with the single exception, perhaps, of the mother’s relation to her male child). If we do away with personal rights over material wealth, there still remains prerogative in the field of sexual relationships, which is bound to become the source of the strongest dislike and the most violent hostility among men who in other respects are on an equal footing. If we were to remove this factor, too, by allowing complete freedom of sexual life and thus abolishing the family, the germ-cell of civilization, we cannot, it is true, easily foresee what new paths the development of civilization could take; but one thing we can expect, and that is that this indestructible feature of human nature, will follow it there.
”
”
Sigmund Freud (Civilization and Its Discontents)
“
From: Bernadette Fox To: Manjula Kapoor Oh! Could you make dinner reservations for us on Thanksgiving? You can call up the Washington Athletic Club and get us something for 7 PM for three. You are able to place calls, aren’t you? Of course, what am I thinking? That’s all you people do now. I recognize it’s slightly odd to ask you to call from India to make a reservation for a place I can see out my window, but here’s the thing: there’s always this one guy who answers the phone, “Washington Athletic Club, how may I direct your call?” And he always says it in this friendly, flat… Canadian way. One of the main reasons I don’t like leaving the house is because I might find myself face-to-face with a Canadian. Seattle is crawling with them. You probably think, U.S./Canada, they’re interchangeable because they’re both filled with English-speaking, morbidly obese white people. Well, Manjula, you couldn’t be more mistaken. Americans are pushy, obnoxious, neurotic, crass—anything and everything—the full catastrophe as our friend Zorba might say. Canadians are none of that. The way you might fear a cow sitting down in the middle of the street during rush hour, that’s how I fear Canadians. To Canadians, everyone is equal. Joni Mitchell is interchangeable with a secretary at open-mic night. Frank Gehry is no greater than a hack pumping out McMansions on AutoCAD. John Candy is no funnier than Uncle Lou when he gets a couple of beers in him. No wonder the only Canadians anyone’s ever heard of are the ones who have gotten the hell out. Anyone with talent who stayed would be flattened under an avalanche of equality. The thing Canadians don’t understand is that some people are extraordinary and should be treated as such. Yes, I’m done. If the WAC can’t take us, which may be the case, because Thanksgiving is only two days away, you can find someplace else on the magical Internet. * I was wondering how we ended up at Daniel’s Broiler for Thanksgiving dinner. That morning, I slept late and came downstairs in my pajamas. I knew it was going to rain because on my way to the kitchen I passed a patchwork of plastic bags and towels. It was a system Mom had invented for when the house leaks.
”
”
Maria Semple (Where'd You Go, Bernadette)
“
The act of our creation is equal for all of us. The results are not. The goal of our Foundation is to treat everyone equally under the law.
”
”
A.E. Samaan
“
You cannot claim you treat everyone equally
If you are judging others by their ethnicity.
”
”
Charles Elwood Hudson
“
When someone else has more privileges, they see that as a benefit to that person, rather than as a reason for being unhappy. When playing an opponent they want him to do well, rather than wishing a poor performance in order to win by default. They want to be victorious and effective on their own, rather than gaining through the shortcomings of others. They do not insist that everyone be equally endowed, but look inward for their happiness. They are not critics, nor do they take pleasure in other people’s misfortunes. They are too busy being, to notice what their neighbors are doing.
Most significantly, these are individuals who love themselves. They are motivated by a desire to grow, and they always treat themselves well when given the option. They have no room for self-pity, self-rejection, or self-hate.
”
”
Wayne W. Dyer (Your Erroneous Zones)
“
In America from the late 1960s on, equality came to mean not just that the law should treat everyone identically but that your beliefs about anything are equally as true as anyone else’s. As the principle of absolute tolerance became axiomatic in our culture and internalized as part of our psychology—What I believe is true because I want and feel it to be true—individualism turned into rampant solipsism.
”
”
Kurt Andersen (Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History)
“
In fact, there is nothing just or fair about it. Aristotle says that justice is equality but not for everyone, only for those who are equal.9 What Aristotle means is that justice is giving people their due. Obama, however, inverts this Aristotelian principle. Obama’s position is that justice requires that the unequal be treated as though they were equal. This is the progressive definition of “fairness.
”
”
Dinesh D'Souza (Stealing America: What My Experience with Criminal Gangs Taught Me about Obama, Hillary, and the Democratic Party)
“
Historically, inequality mainly manifested itself in areas like economics or social status, but death basically treated everyone the same. To be sure, such equality wasn’t absolute: For instance, access to medical care wasn’t evenly distributed; the wealthy fared better in natural disasters than the poor; soldiers and civilians had different rates of survival in war; and so on. But never before had a situation like this presented itself: less than one-ten-thousandth of the population could go into safe hiding, leaving billions on Earth to die. Even in ancient times, such manifest inequality would have been intolerable, let alone now.
”
”
Liu Cixin (Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #3))
“
Smart decisions reflect diverse opinions across disciplines, experiences, and outcomes. In today's collaborative mindset culture, teams strive to optimize each of these inputs. We listen to everyone's input and respond to it. We seek to bring everyone along. Everyone is treated as having an equal voice in the decision. Agility is compromised when people believe they need to make decisions together. In the end, the process is exhausting, and the decision is vanilla.
”
”
Paul F. Magnone (Decisions Over Decimals: Striking the Balance between Intuition and Information)
“
What if I were to say that in our frenzy to make sure everyone and everything is treated equally, we’ve bulldozed over nuance, erased essential differences between people. More than that, we actively deny differences these days. We’re all so afraid to be honest about what comes natural to us that we go our whole lives pretending to be people we’re not.
”
”
Ashley Winstead (The Last Housewife)
“
SCALE THE HUMAN MOUNTAIN
OF SUMLESS LIES UNTIL
YOU LABORIOUSLY REACH THE SUMMIT
THEN CAUSE IT TO CRUMBLE
BY YOUR EQUALLY SUMLESS BURDEN OF VERITY
THAT NO HUMAN MAY FAVOUR YOU
WITH A GLANCE ANY MORE
AND THOSE WHO DO
ARE NO LONGER HUMAN
HAVING DIVESTED THEMSELVES OF THEIR HUMANITY
AS YOU DID
BY VIRTUE OF THE FACT OF *
WHAT MAN HAS DONE TO HIMSELF
BESIDES , YOU ARE ABLE TO ASCERTAIN
HOW MANY '' FRIENDS '' YOU HAVE
WHICH IS THE EMPTY SET
CONTAINING ONE ELEMENT ONLY :
VERITY ! ,
TO WHICH YOU PERTAIN AS WELL
IT IS WHY IT IS THE HARDEST THING
TO FIND THE PATH
LEADING TO YOURSELF
AND IT IS BY THE EMPTY SET
THAT ALL OF MATHEMATICS
HAS BEEN MADE AN EGREGIOUS LIE TOO
IT IS MORE FACILE TO KILL SOMEONE OR ,
IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO , YOURSELF
DO YOU SEE THE POPLAR AND THE ROBIN
THAT IS PERCHED ON IT ?
ASK THEM !
THEY KNOW HOW TO LIVE
YOU DON'T
BECAUSE YOU ARE HUMAN AND INTELLIGENT :
MAN IS ENDUED WITH HIS SPIRIT OF INVENTION
WHICH HAS REDUCED LIFE TO ABSURDITY
AS ALL THOSE THEORIES AND TEACHINGS
SPRINGING FROM IT
HAVE NEVER BENEFITED LIFE ,
ON THE CONTRARY , DESTROYED IT !
AN APPRECIATION OF THE MAJESTY OF VERITY
ALSO ENTAILS THE INEVITABLE CATASTROPHE
OF '' BEING '' AND HENCE THE INFELICITY
OF YOURSELF WHICH HAS TO BE ASCRIBED
TO THOSE PROFOUND TEACHINGS OF MAN
AND THE IMPRECATIONS WHICH THEY
HEAPED UPON LIFE AND BEHIND WHICH
EVERYONE STRIVES TO CONCEAL HIMSELF
AS SOMETHING SUBLIME , BROTHERLY , CUNNING , INGENIOUS
CONVINCED OF THE '' SUCCESS '' OF SUCH BEING !
INGENUITY AND SUCCESS ,
DO THOSE TWO WORDS DIFFER ? ,
AS MAN IS DETREMINED BY THOSE CRITERIA
AND HENCE LIFE !...
WHAT ALSO COMES TO MIND HERE IS THIS -
THERE IS SOMETHING VASTLY ABOMINABLE
ABOUT SOCIETY :
ITS MEMBERS ARE EVER SO FOND
OF ALL THOSE MOVIE STARS AND ALL
THOSE OTHER LUMINARIES
AND WHAT IS LUMINOUS ABOUT THEM
I DO NOT KNOW ! YET THEY ARE IN THE
HABIT OF TREATING THOSE VERY SIGNIFICANT
PEOPLE DIFFERENTLY FROM ORDINARY
PEOPLE SUCH AS A HOUSEMAID OR A GROCER
OR A SALESMAN AND SO FORTH ,
THEREBY CREATING SOMETHING UTTERLY CORRUPT :
A FALSE IDEALISM !
THEY NEED THOSE LUMINARIES AS THEY
LACK ANY IDEALISM THEMSELVES IN THEIR EVERYDAY
REALITY WHICH HAS DEPRAVED THEM OF IT ,
OVERLOOKING HOWEVER ,
HOW TRULY ORDINARY IN TRUTH
ALL THOSE STARS ARE !
AND ALLOWING THEIR LACK OF IDEALISM
TO BE SUPERSEDED BY OTHER PEOPLE'S
NONPRESENT IDEALISM ON ACCOUNT OF
THEIR PROMINENCE MAKES EVERYTHING
LOOK EVEN DARKER IN LIFE ,
AS THOUGH LIFE CONSISTED IN FAME !
IS THIS WHY IT IS SO
DARK IN THE HUMAN WORLD ?
AM I THE ONLY PERSON TO APPREHEND
DARKNESS IN THEIR LIGHTNESS ?
OR WHY IS SO DARK IN THIS WORLD ?
SOMETHING LIKE THAT NEEDS TO BE
SHRUGGED OFF AS SOMETHING
INEXPLICABLY RATIONAL ,
WHENCE I HAVE ALWAYS THOUGHT MYSELF
IRRATIONAL IN NOT GROVELLING BEFORE
THOSE WHO ARE EVEN MORE ORDINARY
THAN ALL THE OTHER ORDINARY
NON-FAMOUS PEOPLE ARE !
IT IS IN PARTICULAR THOSE
ALL-IMPORTANT DIGNITARIES
WHO TASTE OF METHYLATED SPIRITS
IN A MOST ACRID AND NAUSEATING FASHION !
SO MUCH FOR CEANLINESS !...
”
”
LUCIA SPLENDOUR
“
THIRD EMENDED VERSION ,
SOME OMISSIONS HAVING BEEN ADDED TO
MY LAST '' PUBLICATION ''
TO KEEP THE LOGIC MORE LUCID
SORRY FOR SETTING EVERYTHING DOWN
SO QUICKLY -
''SCALE THE HUMAN MOUNTAIN
OF SUMLESS LIES UNTIL
YOU LABORIOUSLY REACH THE SUMMIT
THEN CAUSE IT TO CRUMBLE
BY YOUR EQUALLY SUMLESS BURDEN OF VERITY
THAT NO HUMAN MAY FAVOUR YOU
WITH A GLANCE ANY MORE
AND THOSE WHO DO
ARE NO LONGER HUMAN
HAVING DIVESTED THEMSELVES OF THEIR HUMANITY
AS YOU DID
BY VIRTUE OF THE FACT OF
WHAT MAN HAS DONE TO HIMSELF
BESIDES , YOU ARE ABLE TO ASCERTAIN
HOW MANY '' FRIENDS '' YOU HAVE
WHICH IS THE EMPTY SET
CONTAINING ONE ELEMENT ONLY :
VERITY ! ,
TO WHICH YOU PERTAIN AS WELL
IT IS WHY IT IS THE HARDEST THING
TO FIND THE PATH
LEADING TO YOURSELF
AND IT IS BY THE EMPTY SET
THAT ALL OF MATHEMATICS
HAS BEEN MADE AN EGREGIOUS LIE TOO
IT IS MORE FACILE TO KILL SOMEONE OR ,
IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO , YOURSELF
THAN IT IS TO LIVE !
DO YOU SEE THE POPLAR AND THE ROBIN
THAT IS PERCHED ON IT ?
ASK THEM !
THEY KNOW HOW TO LIVE
YOU DON'T
BECAUSE YOU ARE HUMAN AND INTELLIGENT :
MAN IS ENDUED WITH HIS SPIRIT OF INVENTION
WHICH HAS REDUCED LIFE TO ABSURDITY
AS ALL THOSE THEORIES AND TEACHINGS
SPRINGING FROM IT
HAVE NEVER BENEFITED LIFE ,
ON THE CONTRARY , DESTROYED IT !
AN APPRECIATION OF THE MAJESTY OF VERITY
ALSO ENTAILS THE INEVITABLE CATASTROPHE
OF '' BEING '' AND HENCE THE INFELICITY
OF YOURSELF WHICH HAS TO BE ASCRIBED
TO THOSE PROFOUND TEACHINGS OF MAN
AND THE IMPRECATIONS WHICH THEY
HEAPED UPON LIFE AND BEHIND WHICH
EVERYONE STRIVES TO CONCEAL HIMSELF
AS SOMETHING SUBLIME , BROTHERLY , CUNNING , INGENIOUS
CONVINCED OF THE '' SUCCESS '' OF SUCH BEING !
INGENUITY AND SUCCESS ,
DO THOSE TWO WORDS DIFFER ? ,
AS MAN IS DETREMINED BY THOSE CRITERIA
AND HENCE LIFE !...
WHAT ALSO COMES TO MIND HERE IS THIS -
THERE IS SOMETHING VASTLY ABOMINABLE
ABOUT SOCIETY :
ITS MEMBERS ARE EVER SO FOND
OF ALL THOSE MOVIE STARS AND ALL
THOSE OTHER LUMINARIES
AND WHAT IS LUMINOUS ABOUT THEM
I DO NOT KNOW ! YET THEY ARE IN THE
HABIT OF TREATING THOSE VERY SIGNIFICANT
PEOPLE DIFFERENTLY FROM ORDINARY
PEOPLE SUCH AS A HOUSEMAID OR A GROCER
OR A SALESMAN AND SO FORTH ,
THEREBY CREATING SOMETHING UTTERLY CORRUPT :
A FALSE IDEALISM !
THEY NEED THOSE LUMINARIES AS THEY
LACK ANY IDEALISM THEMSELVES IN THEIR EVERYDAY
REALITY WHICH HAS DEPRAVED THEM OF IT ,
OVERLOOKING HOWEVER ,
HOW TRULY ORDINARY IN TRUTH
ALL THOSE STARS ARE !
AND ALLOWING THEIR LACK OF IDEALISM
TO BE SUPERSEDED BY OTHER PEOPLE'S
NONPRESENT IDEALISM ON ACCOUNT OF
THEIR PROMINENCE MAKES EVERYTHING
LOOK EVEN DARKER IN LIFE ,
AS THOUGH LIFE CONSISTED IN FAME !
IS THIS WHY IT IS SO
DARK IN THE HUMAN WORLD ?
AM I THE ONLY PERSON TO APPREHEND
DARKNESS IN THEIR LIGHTNESS ?
OR WHY IS SO DARK IN THIS WORLD ?
SOMETHING LIKE THAT NEEDS TO BE
SHRUGGED OFF AS SOMETHING
INEXPLICABLY RATIONAL ,
WHENCE I HAVE ALWAYS THOUGHT MYSELF
IRRATIONAL IN NOT GROVELLING BEFORE
THOSE WHO ARE EVEN MORE ORDINARY
THAN ALL THE OTHER ORDINARY
NON-FAMOUS PEOPLE ARE !
IT IS IN PARTICULAR THOSE
ALL-IMPORTANT DIGNITARIES
WHO TASTE OF METHYLATED SPIRITS
IN A MOST ACRID AND NAUSEATING FASHION !
SO MUCH FOR CLEANLINESS !...
VENERABLE ANCIENT SHADES
HOVERING OVER THIS LAKE
THAT IS NO MORE AND OF WHICH I AM PART
THE WORLD AROUND ME FADES
I DISPEL ALL THOSE BLANK AND GRAINED
IDEAS MAKING UP HUMAN EXISTENCE
I AM NO MORE
I DREAM
AND HOPEFULLY I WILL NEVER TURN BACK
SO AS TO SEE THAT BLANK AND GRAINED
HUMAN EXISTENCE AGAIN
WHICH CAUSES LIFE TO BLUR SO MUCH
THAT I AM NO LONGER IN A POSITION
TO SUFFER FOR THIS MUCH GUILT ,
WHAT IS LIFE ?
AMEN !...
”
”
LUCIA SPLENDOUR
“
To me everyone is equal, until they feel the urge to offer advise based on some stroneage tradition. That moment, I stop considering them as equal humans, and start treating them as adolescent children. Whenever you feel the audacity to advise a reformer, ask yourself this - what exactly have you done for the society that makes you qualified to judge a reformer? I sacrificed my youth for the world. What have you done? I put off starting a family for the world. What have you done? I obliterated my national and cultural identity for the world. What have you done? Till you've abolished the last trace of active bigotry, intolerance and fanatical fantasies from your mind, don't you dare touch my work. Everybody can quote Naskar, not everybody can accompany Naskar.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets)
“
The most basic priority for achieving genuine racial justice is to ensure that our public institutions actually treat citizens from ethnic minorities with the same dignity and respect as everyone else.
”
”
Daniel Chandler (Free and Equal: A Manifesto for a Just Society)
“
good. But then something shifted inside me. I remembered who they really were; intrinsically powerful beings playing the part of thugs because they had forgotten their own true power. The gang surrounded me matching my pace. I focused on the leader who had moved in and was walking beside me. Looking him straight in the eye; I smiled and said, “What a beautiful night – don’t you think?” Dead silence. No response from anyone. The gang waited for a cue from him. No one made a sound for what seemed liked much longer than the few seconds it really was. I continued to walk, smiling up at him. Finally, the leader said “What’s a good-lookin’ girl like you doin’ walking these streets alone? Don’t you know how dangerous that is?” Then he insisted that he and his gang walk me all the way to Penn Station so that they could protect me. By remembering my own intrinsic power and separating the behaviors of this gang from the intrinsically powerful beings I knew they really were; my potential attackers became my protectors – my enemies became my friends – and a potentially violent and destructive situation shifted into a positive empowering one for everyone involved. As we recognize our inherent perfection and personal power, we are led to the natural conclusion that others are likewise amazing souls with equal inherent and intrinsic worth and power – even if, in the moment, they are acting otherwise. When we accept any environment into which we are led and pay attention to every soul within that environment; and when we treat them with respect and appreciation for who they really are; we create a larger space for possibilities of powerful positive connection even – especially – with the opposition. We help them recognize or at least feel their true power and make different
”
”
Nanice Ellis (The Infinite Power of YOU!)
“
The refusal to examine Islamic culture and traditions, the sordid dehumanization of Muslims, and the utter disregard for the intellectual traditions and culture of one of the world’s great civilizations are characteristic of those who disdain self-reflection and intellectual inquiry. Confronting this complexity requires work and study rather than a retreat into slogans and cliches. And enlightened, tolerant civilizations have flourished outside the orbit of the United Sates and Europe.
The ruins of the ancient Mughal capital, Fatehpur Sikri, lie about 100 miles south of Delhi. The capital was constructed by the emperor Akbar the Great at the end of the sixteenth century. The emperor’s court was filled with philosophers, mystics and religious scholars, including Sunni, Sufi, and Shiite Muslims, Hindu followers of Shiva and Vishnu, as well as atheists, Christians, Jains, Jews , Buddhists and Zoroastrians. They debated ethics and beliefs. He forbade any person to be discriminated against on the basis of belief and declared that everyone was free to follow any religion. This took place as the Inquisition was at its height in Spain and Portugal, and as Giordano Bruno was being burnt at the stake in Rome’s Campo de Fiori.
Tolerance, as well as religious and political plurality, is not exclusive to Western culture. The Judeo-Christian tradition was born and came to life in the Middle East. Its intellectual and religious beliefs were cultivated and formed in cities such as Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople. Many of the greatest tenets of Western civilization, as is true with Islam and Buddhism, are Eastern in origin. Our respect for the rule of law and freedom of expression, as well as printing, paper, the book, the translation and dissemination of the classical Greek philosophers, algebra, geometry and universities were given to us by the Islamic world. One of the first law codes was invented by the ancient Babylonian ruler Hammurabi, in what is now Iraq. One of the first known legal protections of basic freedoms and equality was promulgated in the third century B.C. by the Buddhist Indian emperor Ashoka. And, unlike, Aristotle, he insisted on equal rights for women and slaves.
The division set up by the new atheists between superior Western, rational values and the irrational beliefs of those outside our tradition is not only unhistorical but untrue. The East and the West do not have separate, competing value systems. We do not treat life with greater sanctity than those we belittle and dismiss. Eastern and Western traditions have within them varied ethical systems, some of which are repugnant and some of which are worth emulating. To hold up the highest ideals of our own culture and to deny that these great ideals exist in other cultures, especially Eastern cultures, is made possible only by a staggering historical and cultural illiteracy. The civilization we champion and promote as superior is, in fact, a product of the fusion of traditions and beliefs of the Orient and the Occident. We advance morally and intellectually only when we cross these cultural lines, when we use the lens of other cultures to examine our own. It is then that we see our limitations, that we uncover the folly of or own assumptions and our prejudices. It is then that we achieve empathy, we learn and make wisdom possible.
”
”
Chris Hedges
“
In human society, rich people can move faster by buying expensive cars and planes. However, physics recognises no such inequality. In physics, everyone — and every object — is equal. Everyone is treated the same. The laws of physics are the same for everyone. Everyone ages the same as entropy takes it toll equally. Under the laws of physics, everyone moves at the same speed in spacetime. You cannot buy a faster car to drive through spacetime more quickly. This is the true essence of the egalitarian Copernican principle. The world of physics is a more equal world.
”
”
Andrew Thomas (Hidden In Plain Sight 3: The secret of time)
“
some people do certain things better than others. Treating everyone equally means ignoring their differences, elevating the less skillful and suppressing those who excel.
”
”
Anonymous
“
A few of the other Traders who dispute that the dragons are anything but animals said that she was taking the matter too seriously, that creatures that can only communicate with some people rather than everyone should not be treated as if they are equal to humans. And then, of course, the arguments degenerated. Some demanded to know if that meant speakers of foreign languages were not full humans. Someone else quipped that surely.
”
”
Robin Hobb (The Dragon Keeper (Rain Wild Chronicles, #1))
“
When facts are misrepresented in order to serve an opinion or to promote it aggressively - especially an opinion which demonstrably results in people being victimized, persecuted, and their lives destroyed in many places in the world, it should be a matter of concern to everyone who wants people to be treated equally, fairly and justly.
”
”
Christina Engela
“
I feel that the government should uphold the concept that it is there for us, “We the People.” That it does what we alone cannot do. By standing unified and proud, we have strength because of our numbers and the power to do what is right. That we always remain on the right side of history and care for and respect our less fortunate. Now, you may think that I’m just spouting out a lot of patriotic nonsense, which you are entitled to do, however I did serve my country actively in both the Navy and Army for a total of forty years, six months and seven days as a reservist and feel that I have an equal vested interest in these United States.
If we don’t like what is happening we have responsible ways and means to change things. We have Constitutional, “First Amendment Rights to Freedom of Speech.” There are many things I would like to see change and there are ways that we can do this. To start with we have to protect our First Amendment Rights and protect the media from government interference…. I also believe in protecting our individual freedom…. I believe in one person, one vote…. Corporations are not people, for one they have no human feelings…. That although our government may be misdirected it is not the enemy…. I want reasonable regulations to protect us from harm…. That we not privatize everything in sight such as prisons, schools, roads, social security, Medicare, libraries etc.….. Entitlements that have been earned should not be tampered with…. That college education should be free or at least reasonable…. That health care becomes free or very reasonable priced for all…. That lobbyist be limited in how they can manipulate our lawmakers…. That people, not corporations or political action committees (PAC’s), can only give limited amounts of money to candidates…. That our taxes be simplified, fair and on a graduated scale without loop holes….That government stays out of our personal lives, unless our actions affect others…. That our government stays out of women’s issues, other than to insure equal rights…. That the law (police) respects all people and treats them with the dignity they deserve…. That we no longer have a death penalty…. That our military observe the Geneva Conventions and never resort to any form of torture…. That the Police, FBI, CIA or other government entities be limited in their actions, and that they never bully or disrespect people that are in their charge or care…. That we never harbor prisoners overseas to avoid their protection by American law…. That everyone, without exception, is equal…. And, in a general way, that we constantly strive for a more perfect Union and consider ourselves members of a greater American family, or at the very least, as guests in our country.
As Americans we are better than what we have witnessed lately. The idea that we will go beyond our rights is insane and should be discouraged and outlawed. As a country let us look forward to a bright and productive future, and let us find common ground, pulling in the same direction. We all deserve to feel safe from persecution and/or our enemies. We should also be open minded enough to see what works in other countries. If we are going to “Make America Great Again” we should start by being more civil and kinder to each other. Now this is all just a thought, but it’s a start…. “We’re Still Here!
”
”
Hank Bracker
“
Everyone was equal there. Men, women, children, and people you couldn’t say what they were. All the various skin tones, and wherever you came from before, it didn’t matter. In this new place you made it all new, and people were just people, meant to be equal, and to treat each other respectfully at all times. It
”
”
Kim Stanley Robinson (New York 2140)
“
Equality applies the same rules and advantages to all in an attempt to treat everyone fairly. While used with the best of intentions, the results are rarely equal.
”
”
Sara Taylor (Thinking at the Speed of Bias: How to Shift Our Unconscious Filters)
“
There was no hatred. No anger. No fear in Gander. Only the spirit of community. Here, everyone was equal, everyone was treated the same. Here, the basic humanity of man wasn’t just surviving but thriving. And Baldessarini understood that he was a witness to it and it was affecting him in ways he’d never imagined.
”
”
Jim DeFede (The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland)
“
Yes, we should treat everyone right, but treating everyone right doesn’t mean we treat everyone the same. Jesus didn’t. Relating to people properly should not be confused with treating them equally.
”
”
Dharius Daniels (Relational Intelligence: The People Skills You Need for the Life of Purpose You Want)
“
All that we ask for is a world where people are treated with respect and dignity. Where women and men are receiving equal opportunities. Where everyone can be themselves within the limits of the law. And, if the law is harming the basic needs of human survival, such as safety and security, then that law must be adjusted. We ask for unity, fairness, and justice.
”
”
Mitta Xinindlu
“
For your information . . . I do not gangbang chicks.” I readjust my tie in annoyance. “I encourage group activities where everyone is treated equal.” I square my shoulders. “There’s a big difference.
”
”
T.L. Swan (The Do-Over (Miles High Club, #4))
“
How to love yourself is how you teach others to love everyone,me&you. Correcting person's behaviours wrong are so important when everyone mistreated each other including me, you&others too! Everyone needs to treat each other fairly and uplift people fairly for fairness,equality&more serious issues! Also, I stand up for fairness, equality to take risks! I don't tolerate rudeness, unfairness&more serious issues from other people, everyone, you! People have to be careful with their words and their actions for what they say to the other people, everyone, you&me too!
”
”
100% Savage Queen Sarah
“
I never knew you felt that way. I always thought you were color blind, just like I am.” I looked at her, knowing she meant well. “Only white people say they’re color blind like it’s a good thing. I’ve known what color I and everyone around me were since the day I moved to America. When you’re not at the top of a social hierarchy, you notice everything about the ones who are. So when a white person says they are color blind, it makes me feel like they are treating me as if I’m white rather than what I am. Like I’m not going to be demoted for being brown. It’s not the same as saying my brownness is equal to your whiteness.
”
”
Mansi Shah (The Taste of Ginger)
“
in our frenzy to make sure everyone and everything is treated equally, we’ve bulldozed over nuance, erased essential differences between people. More than that, we actively deny differences these days. We’re all so afraid to be honest about what comes natural to us that we go our whole lives pretending to be people we’re not.
”
”
Ashley Winstead (The Last Housewife)
“
Charlotte was a fierce and strong feminist. She reflected the heroines in the stories she always talked about. A great activist and humanitarian. She loved animals as equally as people. She treated everyone the way they should be treated.
”
”
Cierra Martinez (As We Are)
“
Only white people say they’re color blind like it’s a good thing. I’ve known what color I and everyone around me were since the day I moved to America. When you’re not at the top of a social hierarchy, you notice everything about the ones who are. So when a white person says they are color blind, it makes me feel like they are treating me as if I’m white rather than what I am. Like I’m not going to be demoted for being brown. It’s not the same as saying my brownness is equal to your whiteness.
”
”
Mansi Shah (The Taste of Ginger)
“
The sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, author of the groundbreaking book Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America, describes how once we stop seeing racism as a factor and treat equality as a reality rather than an aspiration, our minds naturally seek other explanations for the disparities all around us. Color-blind racism is an ideology that “explains contemporary racial inequality as the outcome of nonracial dynamics…[W]hites rationalize minorities’ contemporary status as the product of market dynamics, naturally occurring phenomena, and blacks’ imputed cultural limitations.
”
”
Heather McGhee (The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together)
“
How to love yourself is how you teach others to love everyone,me&you. Correcting person's behaviours wrong are so important when everyone mistreated each other including me, you&others too! Everyone needs to treat each fairly and uplift people fairly for fairness,equality&more serious issues! Also, I stand up for fairness, equality to take risks! I don't tolerate rudeness, unfairness&more serious issues from other people, everyone, you! People have to be carefulo with their words and their actions for what they say to the other people, everyone, you&me too.
”
”
100% Savage Queen Sarah
“
How to love yourself is how you teach others to love everyone,me&you. Correcting person's behaviours wrong are so important when everyone mistreated each other including me, you&others too! Everyone needs to treat each fairly and uplift people fairly for fairness,equality&more serious issues! Also, I stand up for fairness, equality to take risks! I don't tolerate rudeness, unfairness&more serious issues from other people, everyone, you! People have to be careful with their words and their actions for what they say to the other people, everyone, you&me too.
”
”
100% Savage Queen Sarah
“
we visited the Cape Coast Castle, one of around forty “slave castles” that had served as prisons for slaves en route to the Americas. We were greeted by a tour guide, who walked Mrs. Trump through many rooms and told stories of how the slave trade had begun. We were shown a room that had held hundreds of men and women, with tiny windows that barely let in light. There was a small ditch dug down the middle of the room, maybe six inches deep and wide, and it was explained to us that it had been used as a bathroom. Each room was horrible, and the tour guide was brilliant in the way he told us the grim and heartbreaking story of the way the people kept there had lived. And when I say brilliant, I mean that he told it in a way that we almost lived it—we felt their pain, their misery, almost understood what it must have been like to be treated as cattle. The thought that human beings were held in such horrific conditions until they were placed on ships in the middle of the night, only to live in even worse conditions until they arrived at their destination, was hard to stomach. There were rooms for the women that were equally as brutal. We stopped at an altar to pay tribute to all those who had lost their lives and those who had lived under such cruel circumstances. I remember feeling distinctly ashamed that that had ever been allowed to happen and about our country’s complicity, since so many of the people had been shipped to the United States. Mrs. Trump felt deeply impacted as well. In conversations later that day she said, “I did not know. The conditions were so horrible. Did you see the rooms? How can people do that? Everyone should see these things, and we should talk about it openly.” We all, of course, knew about and abhorred slavery, but were less familiar with all the details of its brutal origins. The emotional visit concluded with Mrs. Trump walking through the “door of no return,” the door that the people had left through to be loaded onto ships to be taken to the various countries that used slave labor.
”
”
Stephanie Grisham (I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House)
“
Managing diversity means treating everyone, not equally, but equitably.
”
”
Donna Brooks (Seven Secrets of Successful Women: Success Strategies of the Women Who Have Made It - And How You Can Follow Their Lead)
“
I think everyone— blacks, whites, and all races should treat each other with respect, love, and live in a peaceful world. However, it’s as if our country is in a drought and nobody wants to fetch the water. Therefore, with all of the selfishness in America, people's beliefs will be passed down to their children and the cycle of racism and hate will continue.
”
”
Charlena E. Jackson (Why Are You Obsessed with My Race?)
“
One race shouldn’t be rewarded over the other. Everyone should be treated equally.
”
”
Charlena E. Jackson (Why Are You Obsessed with My Race?)
“
We cannot sprinkle some of the truth. We have to speak the whole truth. We have to be honest; not everyone is treated as an American. Hate is contagious in America, but we the people are the cure.
”
”
Charlena E. Jackson (Why Are You Obsessed with My Race?)
“
My need for new philosophers. Where will they come from?
Only where a noble way of thinking reigns, one that believes in slavery and in many degrees of bondage as the prerequisite of any higher culture; where a creative way of thinking reigns, which does not set the world's goal as the happiness of repose, the “Sabbath of all Sabbaths” and honors peace itself as a means to new wars; a way of thinking that prescribes laws for the future, which treats itself and everything of the present harshly and tyrannically for the sake of the future; a heedless, “immoral” way of thinking that wants to cultivate to greatness the good and wicked qualities of humans equally, because it trusts in its strength to deploy both in the right place — in the place where both are essential to one another.
Our age has the opposite instincts: above all and in the first place it wants comfort; secondly it wants publicity and that grand noise of actors, that grand boom-boom that corresponds to its fairground-taste; thirdly it wants everyone to crawl on their belly in deepest subservience before the greatest of all lies — this lie is called “equality of human beings” — and it honors exclusively the virtues that make equal and assign equal rights.
”
”
Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Fragments (Spring 1885-Spring 1886))
“
Whereas the analytic-synthetic distinction considers some statements absolutely certain and others merely probable, with a rigid barrier between these two categories, it seems more accurate to say there are degrees of belief and certainty throughout one's worldview. Some beliefs are held more firmly than others; some beliefs are held more passionately than others. But the firmly held beliefs are not necessarily the so-called analytic ones, in that they are not trivial, nor are they necessarily self-evident (though they will at least seem to be self-evident to the one who holds them at the center of his network). What determines the strength of a belief is far more complex than the analytic-synthetic distinction will allow. Such factors as past experience, upbringing, self protection, cultural and social background, intelligence level, educational training, stubbornness, pride, prejudice, religious convictions, and so on, can all influence the way we hold our beliefs and the way we revise them. It may be said that our belief system is regulated and controlled by our most basic beliefs, or presuppositions, which are neither trivial analytic truths nor purely observational synthetic truths. Or, to put it another way, everyone will end up treating some beliefs with the authority and certainty of 'analytic' judgements, but give them the significance of 'synthetic' judgements...In other words, not all beliefs are of equal importance to us. Some beliefs are granted virtual immunity from revision while others are held quite loosely. Some are at the center of the web, others on the periphery. But the strength of any given belief is not determined automictically; it is determined in the overall context of one's beliefs...Of course, this does not drive us to a form of relativism. To construe it as such would be to ignore the fact that not all presuppositional networks are equally valid. Some worldviews, or webs, are philosophically stronger than others. Some clearly destroy the intelligibility of human predication and experience and therefore must be rejected.
”
”
Rich Lusk
“
Treating everyone equally means ignoring their differences, elevating the less skillful and suppressing those who excel.
”
”
Robert Greene (The 48 Laws of Power)
“
Viewing People Correctly “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.” II Corinthians 5:16 Viewing people correctly is one of the most important qualifications in becoming Christ’s disciple. To illustrate its importance, Paul says that there was a day when he saw Jesus as a carpenter’s son from Nazareth, the son of Joseph and Mary, a troublemaker who spread discontent and heresy among his followers. Now Paul sees Him as God sees Him: The eternal Son of God who became the propitiation for our sins. Just as Paul now sees Jesus as God sees Him, so also all people. Before his conversion he viewed people from a human perspective. Some were attractive and others not; some were intellectually stimulating and others dull; some were powerful, important people, and others the opposite. Jesus Christ changed all of that. Paul now sees everyone as equal in value and importance, created in the image of God and of eternal worth. This does not mean that you condone sin any more than Jesus approved of the Pharisees. Good or bad, right or wrong, all people bear God’s image and are of eternal worth. You can no longer view people “after the flesh.” All are of equal worth and significance in the economy of God, and you must view them through that lens. This does not come naturally. You must discipline yourself to treat people with the dignity and respect that is theirs by virtue of God’s imputation, the same way that God views you.
”
”
Walter A. Henrichsen (Thoughts from the Diary of a Desperate Man: A Daily Devotional)
“
You see, Mr. Vidón, back in the day in Venezia, anyone could disguise themselves in a bauta mask: ricco o povero, uomo o donna, it didn’t matter. You had to treat everyone in a bauta mask with respect, because you never knew whose face was underneath. It was a way for everyone to play, to have fun together, to make everyone equal, for a little while, anyway. This mask, it was a tool for freedom.
”
”
Carlos Hernandez (Sal and Gabi Break the Universe (Sal and Gabi, #1))
“
The plaintiffs argued, remarkably, that requiring government to treat everyone equally violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
”
”
Heather Mac Donald (The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture)
“
Statements that seem to be common sense to the speakers are nonetheless often profoundly religious in nature. Imagine that Ms A argues that all the safety nets for the poor should be removed, in the name of ‘survival of the fittest’. Ms B might respond, ‘The poor have the right to a decent standard of living – they are human beings like the rest of us!’ Ms A could then come back with the fact that many bioethicists today think the concept of ‘human’ is artificial and impossible to define. She might continue that there is no possibility of treating all living organisms as ends rather than means and that some always have to die that others may live. That is simply the way nature works. If Ms B counters with a pragmatic argument, that we should help the poor simply because it makes society work better, Ms A could come up with many similar pragmatic arguments about why letting some of the poor just die would be even more efficient. Now Ms B would be getting angry. She would respond heatedly that starving the poor is simply unethical, but Ms A could retort, ‘Who says ethics must be the same for everyone?’ Ms B would finally exclaim: ‘I wouldn’t want to live in a society like the one you are describing!’ In this interchange Ms B has tried to follow John Rawls and find universally accessible, ‘neutral and objective’ arguments that would convince everyone that we must not starve the poor. She has failed because there are none. In the end Ms B affirms the equality and dignity of human individuals simply because she believes it is true and right. She takes as an article of faith that people are more valuable than rocks or trees – though she can’t prove such a belief scientifically. Her public policy proposals are ultimately based on a religious stance.23
”
”
Timothy J. Keller (The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism)