Equality Doesn't Exist?

            I like to fluster my students a bit. We know those teachers… the ones who will play devil’s advocate for the sake of infuriating students and, Hopefully, encouraging them to make rational critiques of what their teacher might be saying. Hopefully, I encourage student to think in more than one dimension. I might say something ridiculous like: “I don’t believe in equality.” It is a pretty absurd use of language (and something that gets teachers a headline on CNN!), and, to be clear, I do not actually believe that statement. Well, sort of.

Surely, there is no dog equal in cuteness to this one! (photo P. Smith)

            My more attentive students hear me say “I do not believe in equality” and they have figured out, “Ok. Smith never really does or says anything without a purpose.” Those students hold their tongue and wait for me explain. A few students get mad and yell at me. It’s important to yell at people who say something that you disagree with; it is more important to listen to them as they try and explain what they said. The term “equality” carries two meanings with it. My students have been practicing terms like “material Truth” in class, and when I ask them if they and I are materially equal, the logical response is “no.” In a material sense, no two people are equal. Material equality suggests that two things are balanced and share identical attributes. That is, they look, feel, taste, sound, and smell exactly the same. Even on an atomic level, two particles that are identical in mass and composition are moving at different rates or occupying different positions in time and space. Material equality does not exist. But I said before that I do not actually believe in my initial statement. So how can I believe in equality if I just proved that it does not exist? My students are quick to incorporate some prior knowledge. They tell me that if it is not True in a material sense, then maybe equality can be True on a transcendent level. I push them to explain. Material Truth only refers to that which is True within the dimensions of time and space. Since two things cannot be identical in the bounds of time and space, then there is no such thing as material equality. But if we assume that there is a transcendent Truth to the human person (we focus on people at this point), and of there are no limitations of time and space on a transcendent level, then there is no limit to how two people can be equal outside their material reality. Some of my students do not believe in a transcendent nature of humanity because there is no direct evidence of transcendence. They are welcome to believe this, but I warn them that if they say that, then they are also saying that their do not believe in equality. That ticks them off even more. But, the logic is pretty sound. The point is, “the Other” is equal to whomever the mainstream demographic is, but not in the way that we want them to be. We need to presume transcendent or eternal natures of humanity in order for equality to exist. To try and force material equality or even the perception of material equality is unnecessary and, in fact, harmful to the pursuit of the authentic self, for, in a material sense, perfect Love and perfect Belovedness is impossible.