"If you only notice human proceedings, you may observe that all who attain great power and riches, make use of either force or fraud; and what they have acquired either by deceit or violence, in order to conceal the disgraceful methods of attainment, they endeavor to sanctify with the false title of honest gains." - Florentine Histories; III : 13
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Alright, I am aware this may come of as a bit too all of a sudden. But please, for a moment, listen seriously to the question that I'm about to ask and think about the answer carefully.
So, the question: Is everyone truly equal or not?
These days, all societies are really fond of talking about equality. In the past, the great Roman orator and philosopher Cicero once said, "All men are created equal."; People call for men and women to be treated as equal hence then whine for society to get rid of inequality. They asked to have high staffing rates for women, private cars for everyone and they went to find fault with the order of the rosters. People even advocated the equality for people with disabilities and now society is forced not to use the term "disabled". Children are taught that everyone is equal.
Is that true though? I wonder.
Truth be told, men and women have different roles when they have different abilities; people with disabilities are still disabled, no matter what kind of euphemistic term that people use to describe them. However, all of this means nothing if no one wants to pay attention.
In other words, my answer for the question is "No."
To be human means to be an unequal living being;
No one is truly 'the same'.
Therefore, if you have thought that people are equal, this is a mere fantasy, thus not really dependent on whether someone is truly the same or not.
A wise man once said, "God does not make anyone above or below one another." But that doesn't mean everyone is equal. And also, did you know that the quote doesn't simply stop there? The rest goes like this: Everyone is equal at birth, but then I ask, why are there differences in occupation and social status? And it is written in the second half of this passage, the infamous work of Yukichi Fukuzawa, "Gakumon no Susume". So, is it a difference because one is struggling with academics or rather that one is not trying hard enough?
A difference is made there.
That's the famous "scholarship study". These teachings have not changed at all, even in the modern age of 2015. However, it happens that the situation is much more complex and becomes more serious. After all, we humans are living and thinking creatures. I don't think it's necessarily correct to say that people have to only live by pure instinct simply because things aren't fair for them. In other words, the word equality is full of lies and is deceitful at best, but inequality is also the truth that remains difficult to to accept. And until now, I have been trying for a long time to find new answers of the eternal problems that humanity still faces until today.
But such questions instill, especially as for the matter that equality determines whether someone is innately gifted or simply a pure illusion created by us humans.
So this seems like a tougher, or perhaps more thought-provoking question than the original question. Because whether someone is equal or not is a matter of degree whereas people are looking for something related to its skills as a human being. However, it may seem tedious to ask this yet another question, so please listen to this question I ask again and think more carefully.
Let me ask you the next question: Are human beings innately talented?
Today, people can't stop admiring those who are talented in any particular field. Formal institutions now require their staffing with talented individuals to do their job. IQ tests appear to be an immediate solution to determine if a child truly is a prodigy. While parents keep whining about their talentless children, accusing them as a burden for not fulfilling their expectation. And children are encouraged not to use the word "stupid" to demean their own idiocy.
But is that even true? I can't help but wonder.
Children are born with different genes. Humans spend their time learning from their experience to become a better individual. While talent is a process where your mind shapes itself around some kind of skills means not everyone is nurtured into such progress. Whereas the skillset itself is just a series of actions you have a basic ability with, either way your mind has started shaping itself. Hence then, talent is the next step of that process. However, It's unlikely that they all just happened to be talented in a certain; some of them started too late with a too poor of strategy.
Therefore, if you ask me:
"No, human beings aren't innately talented."
If equality doesn't exist, everyone isn't talented.
Innate talent is nothing but unpolished gems.
There was once a saying, "Great talents mature late." But that doesn't really imply that everyone is naturally talented at birth. Truth be told, a lot of people were waiting for their fate to be changed in an instant by simply putting a lot of efforts, with a glimpse of hope that they eventually would overcome the talents when they slipped to the point they lost their value as human beings. In fact, those talented individuals weren't as much of a fool; they pulled efforts, possibly more than talentless people would do. A prodigy is one who is able to know how to surpass their current level by practicing to develop their skillset, while talentless people aren't really talentless, they just failed to realize that they were talented. But at least, their effort comes with a compensation of achieving, no matter how unacceptable it is for someone to not have an innate talent.
Hey you.
Yes, I'm talking to you, edgy nerd who read this pretentious fanfic.
Have you ever thought about your future? Have you ever imagined what it means to go to junior or senior high school? Or is it meant for college? Have you ever had the vague feeling or thought that one day, you'd find a job and get a job? Back then, I felt like it. When I finished compulsory education and then entered high school, I did hardly notice anything. I just felt at ease about being released from my "obligations." I didn't realize that, at that time, my life and my future was changing. I didn't even understand what it means to learn Japanese and math at school.