{"id":516,"date":"2012-07-19T21:38:25","date_gmt":"2012-07-20T01:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=516"},"modified":"2012-07-19T21:38:25","modified_gmt":"2012-07-20T01:38:25","slug":"thy-myth-of-equality-shattered-a-conservatives-critique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2012\/07\/thy-myth-of-equality-shattered-a-conservatives-critique.html","title":{"rendered":"Thy Myth of Equality Shattered: A Conservative’s Critique"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cEgalitarianism\u201d is a word with many different meanings.\u00a0 There certainly is a sense in which every ideology or system of belief within which equality <\/em>plays a dominant role can be said to be egalitarian. Classical and modern varieties of liberalism, Christianity, socialism, and communism can all, in this respect, be said to be expressions of egalitarianism.<\/p>\n

But, usually, the label is reserved for only those ideologies that call for a more equal distribution of material resources. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

That is, in the popular imagination, as well as that of those who loudly and proudly proclaim their commitment to Equality, the egalitarian is invariably a leftist.\u00a0 For example, when Barack Obama informed \u201cJoe the plumber\u201d that he wanted to \u201cspread the wealth around,\u201d he revealed himself to be a champion of egalitarianism.<\/p>\n

Those of us who love liberty, regardless of whether we call ourselves libertarians or conservatives, know all too well the depths of intellectual and moral squalor in which egalitarian ideology is mired.\u00a0 Still, we would be well served to familiarize or perhaps reacquaint ourselves with some theorists of yesteryear who fought the same battles that engage our energies today.<\/p>\n

One such theorist is the nineteenth century American conservative sociologist, William Graham Sumner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sumner subjected the ideology of those who we call \u201cegalitarians\u201d\u2014and he called \u201cthe friends of humanity\u201d\u2014to withering criticism.<\/p>\n

Sumner stated emphatically that \u201cthe dogma that all men are equal\u201d is not only a \u201csuperstition,\u201d but \u201cthe most flagrant falsehood and the most immoral doctrine which men have ever believed [.]\u201d\u00a0 This becomes evident once we give it a second\u2019s thought.<\/p>\n

If men are all equal, then \u201cthe man who has not done his duty is as good as the one who has done his duty [.]\u201d\u00a0 But if this in turn is true, then \u201cthe teachings of the moralists\u201d is deprived of \u201call sense,\u201d for moralists from throughout the ages and a rich variety of traditions \u201cinstruct youth that men who pursue one line of action will go down to loss and shame, and those who pursue another course will go up to honor and success.\u201d<\/p>\n

In reality, \u201ctruth, wisdom, and righteousness\u201d are purchased at the expense of much \u201cstudy\u201d and \u201cstriving.\u201d\u00a0 As such, they are goods that \u201care so hard\u201d to come by \u201cthat it is only the few who attain to them.\u201d\u00a0 And \u201cthese few\u201d are those who \u201ccarry on human society,\u201d both \u201cnow\u201d and \u201cas they always have done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Put another way, it is inequality\u2014<\/em>most certainly not <\/em>equality\u2014that is well \u201cestablished as a positive fact.\u201d\u00a0 To substantiate his contention, Sumner alludes to a phenomenon with which we are all familiar.\u00a0 He observes that \u201cso soon as the exigencies of life are felt, men are differentiated according to their power to cope with them into \u2018better\u2019 or \u2018worse,\u2019\u201d a fact of life that renders undeniable the claim that while \u201cmen are very unequal in what they get out of life,\u201d still \u201cthey are\u2026more unequal in what they put into it.\u201d\u00a0 To drive home his point, Sumner bluntly states: \u201cThe most unequal bargain has always been made by the men who have done the world\u2019s thinking for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inseparable from the egalitarian fantasy is the idea that \u201cthe disadvantaged\u201d have somehow been deprived of the benefits of civilization.\u00a0 A contemporary American egalitarian is likely to put the matter by saying that some have been \u201cshut out of the American dream,\u201d or some such nonsense.\u00a0 Sumner is having none of it, and says of this fiction that it is the function of \u201cmonstrous ignorance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is not a person in a civilized state,\u201d Sumner asserts, \u201cwho does not share in the inheritance of institutions, knowledge, ideas, doctrines, etc., which come down as fruits of civilization [.]\u201d\u00a0 We tend not to realize this, though, because such fruits are imbibed \u201cby habit and routine [.]\u201d\u00a0 Instead, we \u201csuppose that they come of themselves, or are innate [.]\u201d<\/p>\n

From the time we are children, we begin availing ourselves of the inventory of \u201cfacts, knowledge, skill and the like which it cost the human race thousands of years to accumulate.\u201d\u00a0 And even long after we have become adults, we just \u201cas unconsciously as children\u201d continue to \u201cuse the products of civilization [.]\u201d<\/p>\n

The daily goods that we take for granted are the fruits of the \u201cprodigious struggles\u201d of earlier generations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This includes \u201cthe rights\u201d that we are disposed to regard as \u201cnatural.\u201d\u00a0 It is worth quoting Sumner at length on this score.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery man in a civilized state inherits a status of rights which form the basis and stay of his civil existence.\u00a0 These rights are often called \u2018natural\u2019; in truth, they are the product of the struggles of thousands of generations\u2026Our inheritance of established rights is the harvested product of the few successful experiments out of thousands which failed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet egalitarianism isn\u2019t just immoral in being a lie. It is as well invidious in how it deleteriously impacts \u201cthe Forgotten Man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Forgotten Man\u201d is the person whose resources are taken by the \u201csocial doctors\u201d\u2014those who are \u201calways under the dominion of the superstition of government\u201d\u2014and redistributed to those classes of which, appealing to \u201cthe sympathies and the imagination,\u201d they transform into \u201csocial pets.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Forgotten Man\u201d is \u201cthe real sufferer\u201d of the \u201ckind of benevolence\u201d for which \u201cthe friends of humanity\u201d are noted.\u00a0 Being \u201cworthy, industrious, independent, and self-supporting,\u201d he could benefit and in turn benefit society if the resources that government expends on \u201c\u2018the poor,\u2019\u201d and \u201c\u2018the weak\u2019\u201d\u2014i.e. \u201cthe good-for-nothing,\u201d as Sumner says\u2014would have instead remained in his pocket in the form of an increase in wages.<\/p>\n

Sumner refers to the virtually \u201cinvincible prejudice that a man who gives a dollar to a beggar is generous and kind-hearted, but that a man who refuses the beggar and puts the dollar in a savings-bank is stingy and mean.\u201d\u00a0 This is not just a prejudice; it is folly.<\/p>\n

The man who gives to a beggar \u201cis putting capital where it is very sure to be wasted, and where it will be a kind of seed for a long succession of future dollars\u201d that are just as likely to be wasted.\u00a0 But the man who invests his dollar turns it into capital, specifically capital that will be \u201cgiven to a laborer who, while earning it, would have reproduced it [.]\u201d<\/p>\n

Egalitarians coerce the Forgotten Man to part with his legitimately acquired holdings so that they can then spend the fruits of his labor on \u201cthe social pets\u201d of their choice.\u00a0 They get away with doing this, though, because \u201che passes by and is never noticed, because he has behaved himself, fulfilled his contracts, and asked for nothing [.]\u201d<\/p>\n

The next time we hear egalitarians in either party tell us about how \u201cwe\u201d or \u201csociety\u201d must help this or that group of people, let\u2019s call to mind the words of William Graham Sumner.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

originally published at The New American\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cEgalitarianism\u201d is a word with many different meanings.\u00a0 There certainly is a sense in which every ideology or system of belief within which equality plays a dominant role can be said to be egalitarian. 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