Balance Between Freedom And Equality

We hear a lot of people talking about “Freedom and Equality”...but do we really know the real meaning? Freedom and Equality are two fundamental values in a society and they have helped to construct the society known today. Without them, the nation would discriminate unfairly against people. Equality means having equal opportunities and rights in life,while Freedom means being able and having the right to make independent decisions or have different ideas. Now, some people think that these two words are almost synonymous and that the two can coexist. Otherwise, other people think that they are directly opposed: the more you have of one,  the less you have of the other. In the Declaration of Independence, there’s written that all men are created equal, in my opinion, this is not completely true.“Equality”, for example, has its merits in society but also its limits. We know that a certain amount of socioeconomic inequality is inevitable. People are different.

We are all in fact born unique, with different skills, talents, resources, and mental qualities. Some get “lucky”, others don’t. we can say that these Traits lead to have natural advantages over others, and this is necessary to encourage a process of evolution and natural selection.  Given these natural differences, some individuals will outperform others in various domains. If we were all truly born equally, then there would be no evolution. This is not a completely correct way to think because throughout history natural differences between humans have been used to justify subjugation. In order to understand this,it is easier to look at examples within society. In order to illuminate more clearly the differences between these two words, let’s start with an example:

Tim is a gifted athlete, he has a muscular figure, and for him, it’s really easy to gain muscle strength. Mark is an ordinary athlete. He likes running, he trains daily but he’s lean and struggles with gaining strength.

Society A has a foundational principle of equality, defined as equality of outcome. Society A believes that it is important for people to achieve the same outcomes in life, regardless of the differences that might exist between them. In Society A, Tim and Mark are both professional athletes. Because Tim has a natural advantage over Mark, Tim is required to wear a weighted jacket to slow him down while running.

Society B has a foundational principle of freedom, defined as equality of opportunity. Society B believes that individuals are unique and different in many ways and that each individual has the right to freely make his own choices and to enjoy/suffer the consequences of those choices. In Society B, only Tim is a professional basketball player. Mark only does sport as a hobby, because he is not good enough when he competes against other athletes.

We can say that in a democracy there is a delicate balance between these two.