EQUALITY IN SOCIETY

Blaming the victim seems so wrong but is it? Is there room for doubt and if there is who is responsible? We immediately think of crimes such as rape or mugging; however, what about a chubby person entering a restaurant and ordering a big piece of pie because, “it looks so good.” It should be obvious who the “victim” is when he or she steps on a scale and who the perpetrator is; the one who enticed the victim to eat what looks so good. It is clearly not a crime to eat pie under any circumstances. A teenaged thug mugs a man in a business suit carrying a walking down a dark alley in a crime-ridden neighbor. No question; stealing things from someone else is a crime, but should the man have been walking down that alley? He had every right to walk where he pleases.

As a biologist, I tend to look at thing from that perspective. A diabetic with high blood sugars concentration is hungry because there is no insulin to move sugar into his or her cells to satisfy hunger. I look at cosmetics; almost everyone, even in the most primitive cultures, decorate or tend to trim their bodies with the belief that it makes them look attractive to the opposite sex or males who do things to make themselves appear fearsome to competitors with the same objective. Some people are so driven that they go as far as having painful and expensive cosmetic surgery. There can be doubt what the objective of all of this is.

We have entered an age where some among us deny their biology. Feminists, for example, demand equality; men are not different from women, which is obviously a ridiculous premise. Political scientists base Democracy on the idea that all people are equal, when obviously they are not. Most of us realize that equality in democracy really means equal opportunity and equally between men and women means equal treatment regardless of gender. Yet, we usually recognize this and often make provisions for it in the law. However, there is a large area where, we as a society do not recognize the power of the forces of nature.

Creating an enticing looking piece of pie, or a business person walking down a dark alley, voter equality, or a female dressing provocatively or a man making himself look ferocious  is not a crime nor should it be. As intelligent as humankind is, we have not yet figured out how to handle these things in a court of law, which results in unequal treatment under the law. A prison term for a good cook does not seem right nor does not send a rapist to prison seem right no matter how you look at it. There is no simple answer because the satisfaction of biological needs is not simple nor will it ever be simple—we have to live with it. There must always be room for INEQUALITY.       

URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated