By Andrew Klein

We now live in a world where there is a wide held belief system that all human beings are created equal.

This implies that all have the same opportunities and chances as everyone else and that it only takes the little effort of participating in the consumption-based society to achieve recognition as an equal.

The reality is very different and the myth (enforced by various charters that are more served by avoidance than compliance) has done more harm to Individuals that have all along been denied any opportunity to have equality. Lip service is paid to this alleged equality whilst at the same time modern institutions go about at great public expense, labelling those that are not quite equal and apply labels that have long-term negative impacts on real lives. On the other hand, it allows those able to meet the demands of a fast-changing world to sit about complacently thinking that as others are as equal as themselves, no serious attention has to be spent looking at cases of inequality based on basics.

There will always be people born with a handicap of a physical nature, that may manifest itself physically or in limited brain function leading these individuals to live very vulnerable lives and though considered equal, in essence, they are abused on many levels.

Others having been denied education are by the very nature of today’s world compelled to agree to complex legal agreements for simple services like a cell phone, sold with much love together with a payment plan that often cannot be afforded. Of course, no one asks if the Individual signing such an agreement actually understands the risks involved, the debt level and commitment expected because they are considered equal. Individuals that make a conscious choice to live a life that is different are branded as either social misfits or worse, spending time in mental health facilities where equality seriously means compliance to a strict regime of medication that reduces many to a state of behaviour that is not conducive to quality life. Children are denied education because their parents cannot afford the ever-rising cost of such education and the technology that is required, yet those very same schools continue the myth of ‘we are all equal’.

Persons that have made gender choices or are simply different are fortunately less prosecuted than before but are forced by the greater majority to continue their fight for recognition as human beings because even sex and sexuality does not come with any guaranteed equality depending on where a person lives.

We sprout much about religious equality but are quick to point a finger at entire communities when one person is perceived to commit a terrible crime and is identified with an entire community. This is done on a very selective basis of course because our sense of equality is a myth.

If a set standard of equality were applied that perversely applied the conduct of a few to entire communities, then in Australia at least there would be Camps filled with Roman Catholics and members of other faith-based Groups following the revelations of massive Child Abuse and worse in the recent Royal Commissions held here. Not that these families were complicit in the actions of a few but given the vicious finger-pointing by some at the Muslim community following an as yet not fully explained attack in the United States, we would now imprison all members of the Muslim community. So much for equality, and when we apply this standard to the practices of bankers and politicians, we would have to build special camps to cater for their needs. Of course, this is purely hypothetical because we already have prisons in place, paid for by the prisoners and attended to with much love and care on a daily basis.

Image from oxfam.org.au

Our mainstream media and government policies ensure that we are all equally kept in a state of fear, we no longer talk with neighbours and our expressions of discontent limit themselves to sharing petitions for animal welfare and outrage in places far away and all this whilst all our own communities bleed away, undermined by a structure that has not even a semblance of respect for equality and dignity but through its very nature relies on imbalance to retain control. It does not matter what political denomination you follow; it is assured that the contempt with which you will be treated by those elected by you is a certainty as we are all equal in this and have this allowed to happen. We allow this to happen daily, not because we are evil or seriously disenchanted. We allow it because we believe that the myth of equality ensures we believe that another will act in our place, that another’s telephone call or emails may be intercepted by some mega data sweep that might compromise a lawful expression that highlights inequality and injustice.

We allow this because we believe that all are equal in all things knowing full well that this is a lie and that this lie causes death and suffering daily.

But fairy tales can be so very comforting until the cold reality of the equal right to be dispossessed, the equal right to be homeless and hungry bites homes.

That equality also ensures that real life can be much more terrible than a loss of physical possessions and status, in some places it claims life and you do not have to look too far to see it. Our own First Nation’s Peoples, the First Australians are so very equal, but they continue to die whilst the myth hides the ugly reality that festers in Communities and destroys them. We too allow that to happen! Yes indeed, we are all so very equal.