Different But Equal

Question: All people are different by nature. One is wise and agile, whereas another is lazy and foolish. According to the degree of a person’s maturity, these characteristics are expressed more and more, and as a result of this, one has higher material attainments, whereas the other lacks money for food. Nature, itself, has created differences like these in a society. This is a given.

How must society relate to the weak if it claims to be socially “progressive?” After all, the weak don’t receive any payment in nature. Does society need to support them and assure them of the minimum necessities for existence?

Answer: Yes, and in general, it is up to us to begin to relate to people absolutely differently. They should be integrated into a unique system of education that improves social attitudes so that they will begin to be concerned about society in general, its flourishing and health, social unity, an inclusive connection between everyone, and mutual responsibility.

It is up to the national leadership to take upon itself the organization of a system like this. The learning will not be limited by time. After all, the ego wakes up more and more within a person, and it must constantly be balanced by the appropriate education.

So, if a person studies regularly, he improves and is found in a society that pressures him and demands his conscious and useful participation directed toward a goal in social life. Therefore, each one must be provided with a minimal standard of living that is sufficient for existence.

Question: What is this minimum? How would my life seem if I receive a stipend like this?

Answer: I receive sufficient support to maintain my family, to raise and educate my children and get them on their feet. By and large, I live with dignity from the well-earned social security. It comes to me because I am a part of the society and care about it and its development.

It could be that someone on disability is able only to sit in a storeroom and bring tools from there or to carry out other simple work. Society puts him in a place where he is able to be useful. Moreover, he is educated and educates his children as well.

For all of this, the person receives a “minimum wage,” yet this is enough to maintain the existence of his family with respect and care for all of its needs.

Now, suppose that he has a professional, educated, successful and well-established neighbor. He is very useful to society, develops new devices and technologies, or is a leader in large-scale trading. He gets everything that he needs for his work, yet does he need something different for his home and family than his humble neighbor?

Question: Humanity never has built a social system like this. After all, according to our nature, we always want more than what we have.

Answer: This is exactly what is accomplished through education, which will be massive, permanent, pressing, and put everything in place.

Thanks to this, we achieve general equality. This would not be a forced equality that has already exhausted itself in the previous century. Rather, it is such an equality where each one has everything that he needs in order to exist in dignity and to provide a good, flourishing and organized life for his children.

In addition, regarding the rest of the egoistic drives—envy, lust, honor, and so forth—the person will realize them also, but for the good of the society. The environment itself, the encouraging social atmosphere, will obligate him to act that way. He simply will be ashamed to stand out with his excessive demands through which it is as if he is stealing openly from the others.

I repeat, in a society like this, each one will be concerned about living in dignity, ensuring personal and professional development for his children, yet appreciating himself not according to his wealth, not according to his fame or superiority over others, but according to his investment in society. Additionally, in general, the society preserves a uniform standard of living.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/23/14