Since people are social creatures, we are all forced to live and participate in society. And thus also in its hierarchies and status games. It affects all of us, no matter if we want to participate in this game or not. We all have some kind of status within the groups of which we are part, be it family, workplace, sports club, or any other kind of community.
It has been like this since the dawn of mankind. We had clans then tribes and later on nations. Each of them had its own hierarchical structure. And whenever there appears any group of people, a hierarchy emerges – put a group of three people on a desert island and they either create a hierarchy among themselves or they sooner or later perish. This fact was taken for granted for most of our history.
However, with the gradual development of Western civilization, the idea of equality became more and more predominant. Probably the best summary of this idea can be found in the Declaration of Independence of the US:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness
– Declaration of Independence
The notion of equality of all people poses quite a difficult question – how can be all people equal when they are equipped with such different abilities, talents, not to mention bodies, physical strength, and health?
The answer is to be found – as usually – in classical philosophy.
Aristotle speaks about the essence (ousia)– which in this case means the universal nature of humans, the one that we all share. No matter how tall or small we are, how smart or dumb we are or what colour is our skin or hair.
Then we have accidents1 1(in a philosophical sense, not as the meaning of „unluck“) – those are the traits, that can vary (e.g. height, weight, color, or intelligence, as mentioned in the previous paragraph). This is what is responsible for the status of people – in more traditional societies it is usually the family, to which they are born. In more meritocratic ones it is their ability and skills. Accidents therefore make each person unique, but don’t alter her essence, her humanity.
What defines a human would be a topic for a whole other discussion and it is probably something else than ability to fill in the captcha on a website. But the fact, that deep down we all share one essence (I would not even hesitate to equal the term essence with the term soul) and we differ only in accidents is crucial.
Because no matter the status of a person, we all deserve to be treated with dignity. Unfortunately, we cannot change much the accidents with which we are born. But, given we have free will (which is also a topic for another discussion), the most decisive things are morals, character, and virtues.
This is something anyone can aspire to. Any person, no matter how smart or dumb, can act morally right and foster virtues. This should be the only way how to assess people’s worth. Because this is the only thing we actually have control of.
It is difficult to deal with people. But it is very important to always bear this one thing in mind: intelligence is something people are born with, being evil is something they decide. Therefore I try to have more patience with people who might be a bit slower but are kind than with people who are willingly doing harm.
Because we all can do good. Or bad. It is up to us. And it is the only thing in which we are all equal.
- Once again we encounter the good old Immanuel Kant – he had a similar concept of Noumenon and Phenomenon ↩︎