A series of questions.
1. Do you believe in equality before the law?
Before you answer, consider what this phrase means. Both the concept and the phrase originate from the seminal question of of Greek tragedy in 6th century bce Athens - and the 'before' in the phrase is incredibly important. The implication is both temporal and spatial - equality before the law in a temporal sense & equality before the law in the sense that the law is an edict, or ediface before which we are judged. Both must obtain if one really believes in 'equality before the law'. Equality exists before the law temporally [as reiterated in our own Declaration of Independence] and also must exist before the law in judgement.
2. Do you believe in equality of opportunity?
Again, before you answer, think about what this demands. Every human being must be given the opportunity to realize their own actuality - to do what they do best, not only without interference from the society in which they live, but with the full aid and assistance of that society.
3. Do you believe in equality of ends?
This is much more simple. It simply asks whether you believe that regardless of ability, we all have the right to the recognition and support of our basic human dignity.
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I ask these questions in earnest for a reason. I think that most people when asked these three questions without thinking about what they entail, would answer in the affirmative to the first and second, but not the third - largely because they would automatically think the third to be some variety of idealism, or worse, communism - the equality of ends. Of course, to many of the empathically challenged among us, it is communism, because no one has a 'right' to the recognition of basic human dignity. We make that clear in our simplest actions everyday, without even thinking about it.
But in my view, the third question is actually the ground of the first two. It is not the radical question, it is the simplest form of the question, 'do you believe in equality'. That is fundamentally what belief in equality is - that regardless of ability, or primogeniture, or economic station, each should be recognized as having basic human dignity; as being an end in themselves. It is from this that any talk of 'equality before the law' or 'equality of opportunity' emerges.
If we believe in either of the first two, we must believe in the third. And what this means, unfortunately, is that our socio-economic system has it all backwards. It pretends to honor the first two, but rejects entirely the very ground of those ideas. If we honor that world - if we believe in the moral statements of 'equality before the law' and 'equality of opportunity', we must first meet the criteria demanded by 'equality of ends'. We must first accord every human being their dignity as a human being - food, shelter, education, medical care - the basics of any ability to actually exist.