Inequality as poison
microcosms explain how those who are shorter and fatter or look different not only struggle in survival on the island because of their physique but are also considered runts, and can be socially excluded and tormented. Or one group who, through luck, gains the upper hand may dominate another different looking group. This we have seen in history, with whites dominating and enslaving black people. This a pessimistic yet realistic view of human nature. I do not reject the premise that inequality arises naturally; I cannot claimwe are not animals. But I reject that this means it is impossible to eradicate. Because in many other ways we have distanced ourselves from wild animals, we can do the same to remove the ‘wild’ trait of needless inequality due to birth features. One step we can take towards eradicating this inbuilt trait is educating empathy and emotional intelligence into all children from a young age. This way we can act more like mature and considerate people who understand actual cause and effect, e.g. that someone being gay does not make them a certain way. The impressive speed of change in attitudes towards homosexuals shows unintelligent beliefs can be quickly quashed and increasing education to children helps them grow up with a more understanding outlook. Bullying rates have dropped rapidly over the past few decades and the wealth inequality between homosexuals and heterosexuals has even been reversed in lots of MEDCs. Emotional inequality is in the process of being tackled with support groups and counselling aimed at LGBTQs. I believe in the same way we have started to tackle homophobia we can take on racism, sexism, disability discrimination and more. I do not know why homophobia has been tackled in greater force and with greater effect than other forms of discrimination. I can only suspect that it has something to do with the white male (and secretly gay) politicians wanting to tackle their own discrimination with more gusto than that of women, blacks and minorities along with the peculiar nature of sexuality being seemingly random rather than hereditary such as race or religion. Several television news channels have embarked on interviews with racists in England over the years. The strikingly common factor easily observable between the interviewees is t heir unfathomable stupidity. I’m not saying they’re just unintelligent for being racist, but they seem unable to string coherent sentences together, are often hypocritical, and don’t seem to know much about the world. Stronger justification is the statisti cally higher rates of racism in people without university degrees compared to those who have been to university. This formed the basis of NCS, a government program trying to get secondary school children fromdifferent backgrounds to bond with each other. ( Disappointingly this wasn’t motivated by a desire to tackle racism, rather that several studies linked social cohesion as leading to economic prosperity.) It must be the state ’ s responsibility to teach emotional intelligence, empathy, awareness of our inbuilt desires and how to avoid (the worst of) them. Parents cannot be left with this responsibility because the older generations are riddled with conscious and unconscious bias, and cannot be expected (and some sadly not trusted) to teach their children emotional intelligence, empathy, openness, and awareness of inbuilt bias. To guarantee eradication, the state must take on this job. Conscious bias can be eradicated through education. In recent years we have started to see successes in relation to homophobia (statistics show children are coming out earlier than ever before, demonstrating that there is at least an improvement in feeling they will be accepted), but now we must have an emphasis on race and sex. With an active approach I believe we will see progress, unlike the more passive approach of the last century.
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