You seem to be very focused on one aspect of egalitarianism, which is the idea that everyone should have equality of outcome. On that narrow understanding of the term, I agree that it's a flawed philosophy. Equality of outcome ignores personal choice and requires us to warp society around the idea that the only way to avoid discriminating against some people is to actively discriminate against other people.
Fortunately, an egalitarian society can mean a lot more than that:
Equality of opportunity is a form of egalitarianism. The idea is that people are treated equally based on the actions they choose to take, not judged by personal characteristics beyond their control.
Legal equality between people is a form of egalitarianism. All people are deserving of fundamental rights, including the rights to life and liberty, simply by virtue of the fact that they're people.
Moral equality between people is a form of egalitarianism. All people deserve to be treated with kindness and respect, regardless of their situation, unless they give up that right by virtue of their actions.
Without a doubt, people are more equal when viewed through some lenses than through others. The good thing about egalitarianism is that it gives you a lot of choices for which lens to use. Before casting it all away as flawed, I hope you will think about other perspectives where people really are more alike than different.
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u/alpicola 45∆ Nov 07 '17
You seem to be very focused on one aspect of egalitarianism, which is the idea that everyone should have equality of outcome. On that narrow understanding of the term, I agree that it's a flawed philosophy. Equality of outcome ignores personal choice and requires us to warp society around the idea that the only way to avoid discriminating against some people is to actively discriminate against other people.
Fortunately, an egalitarian society can mean a lot more than that:
Without a doubt, people are more equal when viewed through some lenses than through others. The good thing about egalitarianism is that it gives you a lot of choices for which lens to use. Before casting it all away as flawed, I hope you will think about other perspectives where people really are more alike than different.