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Equality—not what you think.
“That’s not fair!”
We’ve all heard it screamed on school playgrounds, sports fields, and corporate boardrooms. Nearly everyone feels a deep sense of indignation when people aren’t treated equally—particular when it’s you or someone you love. All of us have been treated unfairly at one time or another, and it feels horrible.
It would seem the entire world is currently on a quest to forever rid itself of injustice once and for all by ending inequality, wherever it may exist. Elementary schools teach certain children their genetics gifts them in ways other kids’ genetics do not. Universities allow students to major in the study of Environmental Justice, Racial Justice, or Health Equity. Corporations have entire departments that don’t serve any business goals at all. Their offices of Diversity and Inclusion exist purely to try and make sure people’s feelings of unfairness aren’t caused by the company’s actions.
Despite the kindergarten theatrics accompanying their efforts, it still feels like a noble pursuit—who wouldn’t want a world more fair, after all? Who wouldn’t want to live where no one had less than others?
The reality is inequality is an essential, necessary component of God’s Creation. Inequality is not a mistake, but a beautiful feature of his design. All of Creation is an intricate machine made up of millions of different things—many of which we are probably not even aware of. This machine works perfectly because each part has a specific role to play. Some may appear more important than others. Some may feel they’re being underutilized while others feel they’re overworked. Regardless, without every piece of the machine doing the exact task they were designed for, the machine won’t function as well.
Interestingly, diversity, by definition, requires the absence of equality. Activists might carry a sign that says “Diversity” on one side and “Equality” on the other, but creating or maintaining the balance of both is an impossible task for anyone to demand. You cannot have all things be equal without everything being the same. And because nature is movement, if nothing else, nothing ever stays the same. Weather may gift the farmer one year with a bumper crop and have him near starvation the next. Even if we remain the same gender or ethnicity, we age. We get sick. We are joyful and full of energy some days, despondent and lethargic the next. To paraphrase Thomas Sowell, an athlete would lose or win against himself, depending on a million variations beyond his control from day to day.
The insistence that equality is possible isn’t just a problem because it denies the reality of God’s grand design. It’s a problem because it lays the blame for inequality upon a certain group of people. If Creation were meant to be full of equality (and it’s obviously not), it would insinuate there’s a reason things are not equal—the reason assumed to be a group of people who have purposefully caused the suffering of others. Anger and envy are the inevitable result of placing different people groups within cultures and geographies they aren’t optimized for, and the people who created the culture or who have mastered the geography will always thrive more than others.
But we humans are a prideful bunch and are convinced the world can work differently than God intended it. Because of that, many are seeking to rid the world of all distinction. Despite wholeheartedly believing in the story of evolution—where all creatures are different and constantly changing—they are convinced all creatures should be treated as if they are the same. Despite fighting for women’s rights, they have so confused gender they can no longer define a woman. Despite championing racial diversity, they celebrate mixed-race humans above all others—people who essentially represent a step towards no racial diversity at all. They treat the opinions of 14-year-olds as if it were wisdom from the ages.
Despite their insistence on “Diversity!” they would prefer there be no gender, no race, and no age at all. They’d prefer all be poor rather than a single person have more than someone else. They’d prefer a world full of weeds rather than a single flower, it’s beauty, a constant reminder there are some things that are ugly and some that are not.
The heart of this push for equality lies within the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve first realized they were not like God, but were, in fact, beneath him. This was the beginning of all of human pride—the painful awareness there is an order and hierarchy to all of Creation and not only are we not at the top, we are much further down than we would like. The rejection of this natural order can be found in the roots of feminism, Marxism, evolution, and nearly every other plague of modern humanity.
The insistence everything should be equal, the insistence inequality is wrong and something the world should rid itself of, is the most fundamental threat to the stability of humanity today. The rejection of God’s natural order—the hierarchy that undergirds all of Christendom, marriages, families, tribes, and churches (not to mention science, math, and other important institutions)—will eventually lead to death and destruction. We are already beginning to see the results, less than two hundred years into this horrible experiment, this departure from what God intended.
The recognition of hierarchy and God’s natural order is paramount to understanding the Protarian way of life. We consider inequality a gift—not the unfortunate result of a fallen world, but a necessary, beautiful component of how God intends things to work. For instance, we don’t believe men and women are interchangeable human beings. They each serve a special purpose and we ensure our boys and girls grow up to understand and embrace their roles clearly. This might start with something as simple as differing clothing and hairstyles and continues in the way we parent, nurture, and admonish them.
We don’t believe the opinions of children should weigh as heavily as a grandparent who has wisdom accumulated from decades of trial and error. We recognize there are distinctions between various races or ethnicities and acknowledge the tension or resentment it can sometimes cause. We believe animals are meant to serve humans—not only as food, but for work and companionship.
Distinctions such as these are something the modern world has tried very hard to erase. Protarians are going in the opposite direction—we embrace them. We openly acknowledge them and accept them as beautiful, intentional components of Creation, designed by God. The resulting inequality is a gift, just the way he intended.
Today, many of the treasured institutions that made America such a great place to live are being destroyed. Riots fill the streets as cities burn. Churches sit empty. Families and marriage are no longer held in high esteem. Social trust has disappeared. Public education is in shambles. Law and order are no longer respected and nothing appears safe from disruption.
Are social justice, critical race theory, and equality the key to understanding our world's ills? Or could the pursuit of them be causing more problems? Could our insistence on equality in all things actually be the root of most—if not all—of our societal, religious and political disagreements? Unequaled proposes a fascinating take on why this one topic may be crucial to understanding most of our country's—and Church's—divisions.
“Unequaled,” available in print here or through Amazon in print, digital, and audiobook versions.
