Equality, Diversity and Family

The aspirations of the modern world--at least those propagandized--include "Equality." This is a tricky word because it means many different things and, as a battle cry, can attract quite diverse devotees to its flag. Is it the equality of opportunity? Of results? Are we content giving everyone the same chance for success in life--and, as an aside, how is that success measured? In some cases the equality desired seems to be a floor from which everyone may progress, in others a desired ceiling that will eliminate many from the anxiety of competition with their fellows.

One wonders about these ideals when looking at the outcome within families. Here individuals with very close genetic makeup and raised in the same environment emerge into adulthood in very different personalities and pathways. From the point of view of controlled circumstances, nothing could be better except for identical twins or triplets. In many ways this is a tribute to the inevitability of diversity, an engine of selection and change. On the other hand it is overwhelming evidence against the our ability to control outcomes. An adherent of equality could respond to this only by raising the strictures of upbringing, of narrowing the choices and experiences, in hopes of creating more uniformity, of taking individuality off the table. With uniformity, of course, there is less diversity. And, hence, less genetic creativity.

One wonders if this bland uniformity is at the core of the fascination our intelligentsia has with AI.