Much has been made about equality in this country, particularly of late. Indeed, the idea is of such importance that it’s been given something of a reboot — its old garments seemingly too tattered so that it must be re-dressed in newer, sharper, tailored duds, the stale 18th-century term replaced by its smarter, more academic iteration of equity.
But was equality – or equity – the fundamental foundational concept that our modern culture seems to claim?
The evidence suggests otherwise.
In fact, it was the much more radical French Revolution, rather than the American one, whose preoccupations had to do with equality.
“Read The Code of Nature by Morelly,” said Alexis de Tocqueville in “Ancien Regime and the Revolution,” commenting on how the intellectuals of the day drove the political beliefs of the revolutionaries.
There, alongside all the Economists’ doctrines of the omnipotence of the state and its unlimited powers, you will find several political theories which have most terrified the France of recent times and which we reckon to have seen come into being – namely, shared ownership of land, the right to work, total equality, uniformity in all things, systematic control over individual movements, a regulated tyranny and the complete submerging of citizens’ personalities in the body of society.
He continues:
Of all the men of their age, the Economists would appear the least out of their element in our time; their passion for equality was so entrenched and their taste for freedom so vague that they have a false air of being our contemporaries.
By contrast, the American Revolution – called the American War of Liberty by Thomas Carlyle – was much more preoccupied with the idea of liberty. True, it was concerned with equality, but this was a specific equality, one whose focus was equal justice under the law, and equality of political rights much more generally.
This fact is evident in Jefferson’s first draft of the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independant, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men….
In sum, the equality sought was a means to an end, and this end was liberty.
The recent fixation on equity, or “total equality,” as Tocqueville termed it, is a departure from the central ideas of our founding, and should be viewed as such. For, as revealed in the passages above, equality as an end rather than a means cannot be attempted without radical state power, liberty-destroying state power – a tyrannical system much different from what the founders envisioned.
This fact is the source of much of the claims of political oppression by many on the right over the past few years. For equality (or equity), no longer viewed as equality under the law, or of opportunity, etc., has come to mean equality of economic outcome, as well as the forced acceptance of new moral standards. It’s a tyrannical system that prioritizes state power over individual liberty — a philosophy that our framers never intended — and that is bound not only to oppress individuals who disagree with it but is also set to fail, as it is ultimately antithetical to the American system. Further, it amounts to a tyranny by the minority, which in the end is not much different than a monarchy, for is not a king, being single in number, the ultimate minority?
Last year’s election result was about many things, and no single theory is comprehensive enough to capture exactly what drove our countrymen to vote the way they did. However, among these many issues are those highlighted above. For in rejecting the rigid, forced “equity” that was on the ballot last November, we instead chose liberty, which is nothing less than an attempted return to constitutional government, a fact that bodes well for the year ahead.
Along with his father, Allen Keller runs a lumber business in Stevenson, Alabama. He has a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Florida State University and an MBA from University of Virginia. He can be reached for comment at allen@kellerlumber.net.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News.
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