Thursday 17 August 2006

Fewtril #115

It is partly a question of political philosophy and partly of good conduct whether one ought to permit oneself a feeling of superiority at the sight of an egalitarian who permits himself the same at the sight of those who have remained vulgarly at odds with those of his opinions which he takes to be enlightened.

4 comments:

D. C. Warmington said...

Can he really be an egalitarian if he entertains such feelings?

Deogolwulf said...

A self-professed one.

D. C. Warmington said...

Ah, but very many people profess one thing, and do another. The term "egalitarian" is anyway a condradiction: just as human beings crave belonging, so they also strive to be different. True equality, surely, can only be achieved when everybody is the same. (I think of all those Chinese wearing boiler-suits during the Cultural Revolution; were the Party members' boiler-suits made of slightly better cloth or slightly better cut?)

Deogolwulf said...

"Ah, but very many people profess one thing, and do another."

Indeed, I have never met or known of a self-professed egalitarian who hasn't thought of himself as better than someone, particularly someone who is professedly anti-egalitarian.

"The term "egalitarian" is anyway a condradiction"

Rather, the profession of a sick mind.

"just as human beings crave belonging, so they also strive to be different. True equality, surely, can only be achieved when everybody is the same."

Indeed, and the attempt at making everyone the same is terribly destructive.