“The Equality Conundrum” in The New Yorker

Believing inequality, as this essay makes clear, is a challenge. A challenge that leaves the believer with a perpetual conundrum – what is equal here is not equal there… and what is equal now is not equal then… and what is equal from one perspective in not equal from another.

The essay touches on the philosophical problem but doesn’t offer an answer, because there isn’t one. Once you accept the proposition that equality is a good thing, you are lost.

The fact is that nothing is equal because of relativity. And even if two things could be equal for one moment in time and space, that relationship would change in the next moment.

Nothing is equal and nothing wants to be equal.

The very nature of being human is the instinctive desire for inequality. Some want more. Some want less. Some are willing to do more. Some want to find ways to do less.

We should stop fussing over it. Inequality is not a problem. It is the natural state of nature and the natural desire of the human heart.

You can read the New Yorker essay here.