Forum Post: OccupyTheConstitution Equality

One of the greatest tragedies of the current situation is the DENIAL by the 1% of the connection between all humans based on our shared biological identity as HUMANS. How can we explain this? The answer is psychology. The 1% BRAIN is primarily driven by greed and ego. Due to very lucky circumstances, they have achieved great wealth. They then use that wealth to build ivory towers to wall out the devastation they have done to everyone else. They justify their behavior using a "survival of the FITTEST" model. Of course, the psychology that really explains their self image is their belief that FITTEST really means CHOSEN. They think they are special. They believe they have been specially chosen by some supernatural force, and are therefore BETTER than others. ( A longer discussion of this psychology can be found at http://a3society.org/Psychology ).

So, what does this have to do with EQUALITY? The connection can be understood by viewing it in light of the insanity of our society. It's all about DENIAL. Most of the people on this planet are mentally NOT ABLE to interact LOGICALLY with reality. Please read that again. This is not just political rhetoric. New discoveries in human psychology are explaining how human brains were OPTIMIZED millions of years ago for survival in a very resource limited hunter-gatherer environment. The leap to "self awareness" raised humans above other animals. But that leap did not confer "perfect" logical reasoning. In fact, it produced only a primitive logical reasoning known as SINGLE SENTENCE LOGIC. In short, this means, humans will grab on to principles that seem "logically sound" for very limited situations, completely ignoring wider implications. This is the principle behind "sound bites" and political speeches. But it is also the key to understanding humanity's problems with equality. ( more can be found about Single Sentence Logic at http://a3society.org/Language )

Equality, as related to modern society, was enshrined by the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL MEN are created EQUAL, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The problem is, the term "equal" was never defined anywhere in detail. So, as humans took action to implement this principle, but were psychologically driven to look out for their OWN interests first, the meaning of "equal" went FUBAR. Sure, "ALL men" are equal. But, of course, slaves aren't really men. What's the problem? And, of course, women aren't men. And, we can't really call Catholics, Jews, Irishmen, Chinese or gays men, can we? So, what's the problem? THAT IS THE PROBLEM. All of these arbitrary subdivisions of human society were legally discriminated against in the US under the Constitution, while, out the other side of political mouths came the praise for THE Constitution and "all men are created equal". This is DENIAL.

Now let's turn our eyes on how our society ACTUALLY works: IQ, FCAT, SAT, GRE, report card grades, class rank, Emmy, Oscar, Grammy, Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize, Miss America, Golden Globe, Olympic Cup, Heisman Trophy, Cy Young Award, Grandmaster, Super Bowl, World Series, EAGLE SCOUT ( Yeh! ). Where is "all men are created EQUAL" in this? Do I hear someone out there saying, "this doesn't have anything to do with people being different. All of these prize winners got there because they WORKED for it!" Yeah, right. I could practice singing for a hundred years and still never sing like Barbara Streisand, or bat like Babe Ruth. Danny Devito could never win a weight lifting contest against Arnold Schwarzenegger. So, how can SOCIETY keep saying, "all men are created equal"? DENIAL.

OK. The task at hand is to challenge the validity of some of the issues we thought were without question. I believe that the place humanity needs to start to resolve the issue of EQUALITY is to just throw out the idea that "all men are created equal" and start from a basis that ALL HUMANS ARE BORN VERY DIFFERENT. Taking this as a GIVEN, what SHOULD we do about it? Do we create "equalities", like "equal in the eyes of the law", or is it "every MAN for himself"? Go for it!

(This post is part of a collection of posts aimed at launching a new process called the National Opinion Collection System (NOCS). For more information on the process, see http://occupywallst.org/forum/occupytheconstitution-introduction/ )