Parting Words

     I’ve spent a great deal of time writing about something that our society has become hyper conscious of— inequality. In a world where political correctness runs deep, even our language is monitored to set individuals and people groups on equal footing. Things that were tolerated before— racial and sexual slurs are moving towards becoming no longer accepted in most “culturally developed” societies.

           

As a result, it’s been pretty easy to point out every instance of inequality that I, the media, and the rest of the world could possibly come up with. But, with my parting words, I’d like to say this: Inequality will always exist.

There’s a natural propensity towards inequality. People will always be inclined to devise structures and social systems that recognize themselves as more powerful and “better” people. There are an endless number of things that people can make distinctions upon and exclude others, the one we’re most familiar with being economic.

A perfect illustration of this is the concept of poverty. When you get down to it, there’s no true universal standard for what qualifies someone as impoverished. By the American standard, more than half the world is impoverished— where our “impoverished” still have access to forms of health care, housing, nutrition, and a relatively good standard of living. Which proves that poverty is completely relative, but that relative standard is perpetuated because society classifies different people based on their level of economic capital.

Another body of proof is the brands our culture revolves around. People are attracted towards Polo, Nike, Gucci; the list goes on and on, willing to pay double or triple the price than some “lesser” brands even though the quality of the product is nearly the same. Because that stitched horseman or swoosh indicate first rate product, and consequently a “first rate” individual.

            So what do you do? You suck it up. Inequality can disadvantage, inhibit, and even harm individuals and entire demographics. But, there really is no choice but to either overcome those barriers or live with them— and unless political and cultural shifts make the worst forms of inequality substantially better (which is probably long overdue, but knowing the productiveness of our government will take years and years to accomplish), people are going to have to create their own solutions.

            And it’s a tough love kind of message, but something I believe is certainly true. Political activism and cultural movement is something that’s critical to making change, but personal movements also have to be made. And that’s completely up to you— in the immortal words of Mahatma Gandhi, make the change that you want to see in the world.