But….if these folks, armed to the hilt with slings, arrows and pointed adjectives at the ready, actually stopped and contemplated the words ‘equality, inequality and justice”, they’d realize more mean definition and clarification is needed. Let’s bring Aristotle into the fold. Ari says, “Yeah okay…sure, justice IS equality, but not for all. That can only pertain to those are equal.”
Dude….
Then, where does inequality come into play? On a good day, I can traipse rather closely to grasping the enigmatic nature of Ari’s theory, in which deductive validity of any argument can be determined by its structure rather than its content, for example, in the syllogism: All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates is mortal.Is Descartes’, “I think, therefore I am”, a variation on a theme? Maybe, but the old noted thinkers were like that. Descartes found that he couldn’t doubt that he himself existed, as he was the one doing the doubting in the first place. This is what those cats sat around thinking about. I would know: I have their carved busts throughout my semi-tastefully appointed home.
Still, that beckons the question: what the hell does ‘equality only pertains to those who are equal’ mean? Is this another way of leveling the playing field? What is the difference, even if subtle, between treating someone equally and equalizing a situation involving a person or persons? Perhaps, I’m over thinking this. Maybe equality is simply cutting someone some slack, holding them accountable while giving them their due.
Maybe. I’m a newly minted 61-year-old, but using this premise, I finally, after all these years, have a better understanding of my mother’s response to the birth order of her three daughters. I bring up the rear as the third and final by product of genetic co-mingling. As the baby of the family, was I spoiled? My two older sisters might think that to be the case. But let’s say you have two children: one is an eight-year old and the other barely a toddler. Your eight year old is able to discern that you give the baby more attention and the little darling feels you’re treating your two children “unequally”. You say say the treatment might be unequal, but it’s not unjustified.
That’s because the baby needs you more.
The playing field eventually levels. It always does.
**** Changing the subject a bit….this is direct response to “Covid Kenny” and your DM to me regarding to current status of race riots and a host of other topics well above your intellectual capacity.NBA star, LeBron James is deemed by many to be was a powerful voice on race relations in this country. He’d been quite vocal since the murder of George Floyd now more than a month ago. And from what I understand (since I’m not necessarily a fan of Mr. James’ specifically or of the NBA, generally) but because I am a wiz at research, I do know James has been an activist for years.
He’s rarely minced words regarding his feelings on the war in Darfur, the Trayvon Martin shooting, the Michael Brown verdict, and the death of Eric Garner. James has said, “Being black in America is tough. We got a long way to go for us as a society and for us as African Americans until we feel equal in America.”
Sure. Of course. Couldn’t agree more.
But…..
Mr. James says these things; believes these things yet at the same lines his pockets with hundreds of millions of dollars gotten off of sweatshop labor. He profits for off shoes and clothing made by workers (some probably underaged laborers) in absolutely horrible conditions.
I’ve made a few searches but couldn’t find anything on King James’ condemnation of Chinese ethnic cleansing, Han supremacy which clearly indicates there are the equivalent of Jim Crow laws in China with systemic discrimination against non-Han Chinese. He’s been quiet on the Chins’s oppression and suppression of Tibet…or even deplorable conditions and massive human rights violations that are the norm throughout Africa. And yes, Venezuela too where just day to day survival is a sweatshop.
So, I ask you Covid Kenny, is Lebron is picking and choosing his narrative battle grounds? Or do the problems in all the places I just mentioned, not an issue to him is due to him, because they’re out of sight and out of mind? Or is it because they don’t directly affect his bottom line of a Black basketball player in 2020’s America? Are these matters less important because, well, since none have American zip codes, that makes them all indirect forms of slavery because they are in fact, happening a half a world away?
Maybe in 60 years from now, long after after I’ve become worm chow, some middle aged woman…perhaps of Chinese extraction….might be on her blog or whatever they’re opining on in 2080, and cursing the legend LeBron was/is for his complicity in unjust and exploitative systems.