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Equality & Respect: How I'm Equal to Hugh Jackman
To be perfectly honest, I'm not as sexy as Hugh Jackman.
According to the Declaration of Independence, we're all supposedly equal. But I'm not as
wealthy as Bill Gates. I'm not as tough as Vin Diesel, and to be perfectly honest, I'm
not as sexy as Hugh Jackman.
So, what's all this about equality? One way they’re my equals is our legal standing.
We enjoy equal freedom to choose our path to happiness and act to secure it. We're equal
in our liberty. The only way we can all have equal liberty is if we understand liberty
not as the freedom to do whatever I please, but as the freedom to do whatever I please
subject to the condition that this doesn’t infringe others’ freedoms.
The philosopher John Locke was careful to distinguish liberty from licentiousness. If
we're equal, then I can’t treat others as if they were my slaves. I just thought of
another inequality: I think I have the best job in the world, but we can't all have the
same job, then nothing would get done. But, wait. Does Hugh Jackman wish that he had my
job? My guess is that he likes what he does, just as I like what I do.
Since there is a wide plurality of human tastes and preferences, we can all enjoy what we
do without all doing the same thing. Some of the things that some people enjoy, others
don’t like at all. Some people watch TV shows I think are awful, listen to music I
can’t stand, read books I wouldn’t enjoy.
But, I can respect that people have different tastes and preferences without sharing them,
as long as their preferences don’t entail violating other people's rights. I need not
respect the lifestyle choices of serial killers the way I do respect the lifestyle choices
of people who like music I don’t like. I can treat everyone with equal respect as long
as I recognize their equal values as persons, their equal moral worth. By the same token,
the legal order can show equal respect for persons by respecting their rights equally.
That's true equality.
If we try to produce equality in some other way, we’d actually be failing to respect
persons, because we would either have to violate their freedom to choose, or we’d be violating
the freedom to choose of someone else. For example, we could take away some acting jobs
from Hugh Jackman so that I could have one. That would be a step towards equalizing things
between us.
It wouldn’t get me on the cover of People magazine. But, it would get me more money.
Of course, it would also mean that his fans wouldn’t be as well served. And more importantly,
it would mean that both of us were denied opportunities to do what we love to do. Treating
us as equals doesn’t mean that he should be required to write books or that I should
be required to act and sing.
Treating us as equals means showing equal respect to the choices we make, provided that
our choices don’t entail taking away a similar freedom for others. It means we must enjoy
equal protection of our rights.