In the week in which we bid farewell to Winnie Madikizela Mandela, the quintessential crusader for social justice and equality and where we marked the 25th anniversary of the death of struggle hero Chris Hani, whose commitment to the fight against inequality can be clearly seen from the following words attributed to him, “The perks of a new government are not really appealing to me. Everybody would like to have a good job, a good salary, but for me that is not the all of struggle. What is important is the continuation of the struggle. The real problems of the country are not whether one is in cabinet but what we do for social upliftment of the working masses of our country”, comes a report from the World Bank reminding us that our country has unacceptably high levels of inequality.
In reflecting on this, I was reminded of a debate I had within myself, amidst a personal Sartrean existentialist crisis that was exacerbated by the fact that I would spend most of my day delving into deep philosophical texts from the classical era and beyond in search of answers to epistemological, teleological, ontological and cosmological questions. These questions led me to examine concepts such as equality and try and ascertain what they mean for myself as an individual and for us collectively as a country as we strive to build a better country that works for all and not just a few.
I remember attending a talk on transformation (or lack thereof) in SA rugby, given by Dan “Cheeky” Watson a few years ago, at a UCT lecture hall. As is his wont “Cheeky” as he is popularly known proceeded to make a few statements which the mainstream media would categorise as extremely controversial.
The main thrust of Cheeky’s talk was that there were enough good black rugby players in South Africa to ensure a greater representation in the Springbok team if the selection criteria was indeed merit based, but that South African rugby had not done enough to ensure that this was indeed the case. Whether you agree with these sentiments or not, what really struck me at that point and has stayed with me over the years was a question that was asked by someone during the Q&A session at the end of Cheeky’s talk.
The question that was asked to Cheeky Watson was along these lines, “Cheeky whilst I agree with your sentiments about the need for greater transformation in SA rugby and that more can indeed be done to ensure that there are more black players in the Springbok team, the question I have is: how are we going to counter the fact that the Afrikaans woman seems to have this inherent ability to produce human specimens like Pierre Spies, Bakkies Botha, Danie Rossouw etc. who seem to be tailor made to play the game of rugby, whereas black mothers seem to produce human specimens who don’t necessarily have the size required to play the game?”
This question got me thinking again about the issue of equality. The classical Greek philosopher, Plato stated that, “all men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince.”
Modern society has been built on the fundamental assumption that human beings are inherently equal and a lot of our expectations and perspectives on what is a just and fair outcome in society has been framed by this belief in the equality of all humans. Even the concept of democracy itself was borne out of the notion that all humans are equal as stated by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, “democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.”
It is this belief in the equality of all humans that has led to all sorts of revolutions throughout history, chief of which was the French Revolution built on the promotion of the values of, “liberty, fraternity and equality.” This belief in the equality of all human beings becomes problematic when you take a quick glance around the world and you see the inequality that pervades society. It becomes difficult to justify the inherent equality of all human beings when all the evidence around us seems to point to high levels of inequality inherent in humanity.
The socialists would have us believe that this inequality is as a result of flawed social organisation which can only be solved by establishing a socialist order whereas the capitalists would have us believe that this inequality is not necessarily a problem, as long as we can create “equal” opportunity through the market mechanism.
The problem may just be our understanding of the concept of equality. It is true that human beings are equal as regards value, worth and dignity. We all hold equal value, worth and dignity irrespective of our social status or our position in life. However it is also true that human beings are born inherently unequal when it comes to ability, talent, temperament, intellect, physical attributes etc. and that these differences play a major role in defining what we can or cannot accomplish in life.
Maybe we have confused equality of worth and value with equality of ability and because of that we find ourselves trying to engineer all sorts of social outcomes which go against the very nature of what we are as human beings. Going back to my rugby example, maybe we in South Africa are trying to counter natural forces by insisting that there be more black players in our rugby teams when the reality is that black South Africans don’t have the physique and the natural attributes that are necessary to excel in the modern rugby game?
With a few exceptions here and there the modern rugby game seems to be suited to big, strong, muscular individuals and in the South African context there are not many black people who possess these attributes when compared to their Afrikaner counterparts who seem to excel in the sport. Perhaps we should change our expectations when it comes to the number of black people that we expect to be in the Springbok rugby team. Maybe we are trying to enforce equality where nature prescribes inequality?
I use a rugby example in the South African context but this logic can be applied to all kinds of socio-economic contexts where unequal outcomes have produced all kinds of revolutions, policies and resolutions aimed at reversing this inequality. It was the English author George Orwell who said that, “no advance in wealth, no softening of manners, no reform or revolution has ever brought human equality a millimetre nearer.” Maybe our worst mistake has been to mistake equal individual opportunity for equal group results?
Perhaps we should all accept an unequal world when it comes to socio-economic outcomes because the reality of human inequality when it comes to talent and ability almost guarantees that there will be differing outcomes and results based on individual human effort and application. Maybe the socialist ideal, “none should have more than they need, whilst any have less than they need” as promoted in Robert Tressell’s epic novel, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, is entirely unrealistic given the inherent inequality in terms of ability amongst human beings.
Proponents of “social justice” are always railing against the great gulf between the haves and the have-nots in society but what if all of this is the natural outcome of inherent human inequality? It was Aristotle who said that, “the worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.” Maybe we are guilty of trying to impose equality on beings that are inherently unequal. It would be difficult to argue against the fact that human beings are born with inherently unequal ability and talent ceteris paribus. In other words if you take away the differences in social status, financial muscle and access to resources and opportunities that human beings are born into, there are inherent differences in human beings which would produce unequal outcomes in any case.
These are the kinds of questions that I have asked myself over the years as I have reflected on the issue of equality and the supposed problem of inequality in the world. Looking at the South African context, where we live in one of the most “unequal” societies in the world, maybe we have made the mistake of shifting our emphasis from equality of prospective opportunity towards statistical parity of retrospective results and hence our battle with the implementation of policies such as Black Economic Empowerment, Affirmative Action and all kinds of quotas in different sectors of society. To paraphrase a famous Orwellian phrase, maybe “all men are indeed created equal, but some are more equal than others.”
Mugabe Ratshikuni works for the Gauteng provincial government; He is an activist with a passion for social justice and transformation. He writes here in his personal capacity.
