We began this series looking at the concept of equality as a barometer for evolution; the more evolved we become as individuals, the more equality-focused we become as a society.  

As I said in the blog, ‘If We are Evolved, We are Equal’, western society is at stages two and three, out of four, in the deliverance of that equality.  Stage one, admired by autocrats, says that equality isn’t desirable because of a ‘natural order’.  Stage two agrees that equality is ideal but claims that it is not practical.  Stage three agrees that equality is the ideal standard for society and claims to deliver it without bias, but fails to deliver outcomes (user experiences) that prove that equality is a reality for people.  And stage four is where we see equality delivered, because the provable user experience for people in the systems in society are used as the metrics for deciding if equality in society is real and if it is real for everyone.  In other words, those voices provide feedback that inform the systems if they deliver, and if not, how best to deliver upon that equality in practice.

How Equality Happens in Society

This process of ‘equality-evolution’ begins with the personal belief that ‘equality for all’ is theoretically moral and ethically right.  This belief then evolves into wanting that equality to be the reality for all people in practice.  If enough people feel the same way, and the right checks and balances are provided for, the outcome is equality for all.  It sounds easy, so why haven’t we been able to deliver equality for everyone?  Because not enough people with power to create change in those systems, want to see that change towards equality happen.  Typically, those with power fail to surrender their power without a seismic shift in consciousness or else that power being removed from them forcibly.  

However, if enough people, systems-users experiencing inequality want change, then the systems themselves can be changed.  But how?  This series is examining exactly that.

Structures that Support Equality

So far in this series we’ve been looking at different infrastructures (systems) that define how we treat each other in society.  Triangular infrastructures (hierarchies) are the worst formats for respecting equality.  Weblike structures are better at enforcing and supporting equality.  So, we’ve been looking at these two models for comparisons for the different systems and a way forward.

In the two previous blogs, we looked briefly at capitalism and the legal systems that control much of our society in the west.  Capitalism serves an agenda for controlling wealth within certain class strata.  The legal systems in the west claim equality under the law but don’t deliver just outcomes equally, uniformly, for everyone.  Both systems are hierarchical.  In this blog we’re going to look at the western model of political power and governance, and what they deliver.

Democracy isn’t Equality

In theory, the model of democracy provides for equality in society through a voting system, where government is elected by the whole population (or eligible members of a state), typically through elected representatives.  Also, for something to be “democratic”, it means something is ‘favoured or characterised by social equality’.  But while democracy promises equality, in practice it often replicates and reinforces social, economic, and racial inequalities. This is because democracy is run through a system of hierarchies, not least the political systems themselves, the media and capitalist structures, that typically all push their own agendas.  

These hierarchical systems mean that while democratic principles claim that everyone has the same rights, not everyone has the same equal access to political power.  Strict voter ID laws, or other barriers to voting can disproportionately affect minorities, lower income groups, or some ‘tech-shy’ elderly.  Wealth can buy influence too, through campaign donations, lobbying, and media control.  Lower income individuals may be “too broke and too busy” to have time to engage in political meetings, protesting, or even voting.  And not everyone is equally educated, meaning that demagoguery is more easily sold to the under-educated who in turn become easier to manipulate.

The  political and legislative systems themselves can be dominated by class, gender and racial bias, with them dominated typically by white men of an elite or upper-middle-class background.   The practice of ‘gerrymandering’ (the redrawing of district boundaries for political gain) can influence the outcome of elections.  And in some cases in the US, legal disenfranchisement is practised where people with felony convictions lose their right to vote, sometimes permanently.

The traditional media is largely owned by a small number of companies that often control the media landscape, shaping narratives and influencing the electorate with a specific agenda that often serves elite interests.  And sometimes, some communities can be targeted by misinformation campaigns, distorting a democratic understanding of who we all are.  

This all means that those furthest from power often remain voiceless and addressing that requires not just more diverse candidates running for election, but systemic reforms in funding, education, party structures, voting systems, and media narratives.  But that requires desire for change by those in power.

And this returns us to the problem of political will.  When the power of any system is in the hands of an elite, that power is not easily wrested from that strata and equality becomes impossible to attain.

Equality is Happening Slowly

So, despite the reluctance of the powerful to relinquish control, slowly, globally, the systems have been incrementally changing on a piecemeal, issue-by-issue, basis.  Women’s rights in the Near/Middle East, gay marriage rights in the US, Civil Rights marches in the 60’s, Black Lives Matter, MeToo, Climate Change awareness.. slowly, there has been change in political and legislative systems embracing equality.  Why? 

These initiatives for change are coming from the marginalised groups, those without power, seeking mainstream support from the populace for change.  And there have been victories, but they have been hard won and often as a result of extensive and strategic struggles on the parts of those who had been unequally subjugated.  

When the Catholic Church paedophile priest scandal blew up around the world, the Catholic Church hired the best lawyers available to fight the victims in court.  Why?  Why not have an open, inclusive, inquisitorial legal format that seeks to find the justice and healing for those who have been harmed; raped children?  Seek reparations, repair, healing?  Especially from a supposedly benevolent, spiritually-guided, moral gauge as the Catholic Church (another hierarchy).

Systemic change has largely happened because people at the grassroots level have pushed for that change and the systems largely couldn’t legally argue against equality in theory (although they occasionally did win on technicalities), and largely could only argue against change evidentially (either the physical or corroborative evidence or that the ‘credibility’ of the witness is flawed).  Infernal miscarriages of justice also relied upon systemic racism or bias to discredit the victims, despite physical evidence to the contrary.  

But Systems of Power Don’t Want Change

Systems of power don’t want change.  They want three things.  1. To keep everything just as it is, so that their hold on power remains.  2. They want zero empathy involved in any decision-making processes (legal, political, or otherwise) for victims or opponents to their agenda; they are ruthless, forgoing reluctantly whatever incremental change the subjugated have managed to secure by whatever legal case or collective methods.  3. They want to prioritise their own desires over the free will (rights) of the individuals whom they have subjugated/harmed/killed/incarcerated/ostracised/disenfranchised, etc.  This subjugation extends not just to humans, but to all of life (other animals, the environment, the planet itself).

The systems by themselves won’t change so they must, instead, be changed.  But how? 

Occasionally a seismic event will change public discourse leading to the collective demanding change.  A massacre of 51 people by a white supremacist in New Zealand led to comprehensive gun law reform.  A pregnant woman who died because she was denied an abortion in ‘Catholic Ireland’ led to a referendum that changed the Constitution finally making abortion legal there. 

Alternatively, one powerful elite will wrangle power from another powerful elite, with power changing hands, such as when the Houses of Parliament in England voted themselves more powerful than the ruling monarchy (1689).  Or a revolution will happen, such as with the American Revolution (1775–1783), which was the first successful application of Enlightenment political ideas of popular sovereignty, individual liberty, and the rule of law.  Similarly, the French Revolution (1789–1799) was a massive political and social upheaval that overthrew the French monarchy, radically transformed French society, and influenced revolutions across the world. It ended centuries of absolute monarchy and privilege for the nobility and clergy, and introduced concepts of liberty, equality, fraternity, and popular sovereignty.  

But, despite these significant shifts, inequality is everywhere in England, the United States and France.  Why?  Because all the systems within those societies did not change simultaneously.  The legal and feudal systems were overturned, but capitalism, patriarchy and racism is still thriving in all three.  

Triangular systems in their enforcement of rules and behaviours benefit a particular race, gender and class.  The people in power when these triangular systems began, were those who ran the Roman Empire.. white, moneyed men.  Feudalism, absolute monarchy, caste systems, slavery, colonialism/imperialism, apartheid, serfdom, patriarchy, class systems (e.g., aristocracy, oligarchy), theocratic rule and, yes, even capitalism, all benefit(ted) those already holding wealth/power, denying full rights to those beneath them in their hierarchies.

Systems of Control are Interlinked

One system of power does not exist in a vacuum; they are all interlinked and mutually self-supporting, with bias traversing them all.  That is why racism, patriarchy, class structures, colonialism, and inequality of all sorts are close bedfellows. 

It was the famous Irish revolutionist, James Connolly, who, in 1914, said that to remove the imperialist from your midst was not enough. 

“If you remove the English army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of the Socialist Republic your efforts would be in vain. England would still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers.”

Connolly said that, if you wanted equality, not just political independence from England, but economic democracy, social justice, and worker control, you had to remove all the unequal systems, as the mindset of the imperialist, the capitalist and the patriarch are the same.  Changing who holds the power isn’t enough if the underlying structures of exploitation remain.  

“The worker is the slave of capitalist society, the female worker is the slave of that slave,” he said.

His revolution was against imperialism, capitalist oppression and sexism, which he saw as parts of the same whole.

So, What Does All This Mean Today?

Most systemic structures since the indigenous era are triangular, hierarchical.  Money, politics, law, religion, education, colonialism; all hierarchical, and all hierarchies cause pain because of inequality. 

Most infrastructures of the indigenous epoch were weblike structures, community-based.  There was ‘ownership’ of self, but also care of ‘other’.  The interconnectedness of all things was known and lived.  An African proverb is, “Initiate the young men of the village, lest they burn it down”.  And this interconnectedness did not end with humans; the same life-force in us wove its lattice throughout the natural world. 

Climate justice campaigners understand this logic.  We are all part of the same ecosystem; exploitation somewhere harms us all.  We are duty-bound to take care of each other and the planet upon which we rely.  The exploitation inherent in all hierarchies damages us all, whether we are directly impacted or not.

The greatest step forward in recent years in our evolution of consciousness, in my opinion, has been ‘Ally-ship’.  Not just the fight for justice for “me”, but the standing up for ‘other’, with compassion; protecting and defending another person’s rights, even (and maybe especially) when because of my privilege, I am already protected.  Ally-ship means that we see each other as deserving of equality, by right.  It’s a natural progression for our consciousness, but it’s gratifying to see it in action.  

Ally-ship also means that at the more evolved end of the spectrum of consciousness, we want equality in practice for all, which points to the direction of the new epoch that’s already underway.  So, what does that look like?  Is it a ‘fair and equitable system that facilitates and supports everyone to grow in community in healthy and empowering ways’?  Is it an ‘equality-focused democracy’?  Or is it ‘protecting our planet from exploitation and greed, so it is respected as the home that supports us and upon which we rely’?  Is it all of them?

The empire of the United States is falling.  The world order is changing.  The lie that equality was the bedrock of the West, is revealed.  We are coming to the end of the ‘power-over’ and ‘strongman politics’ era that gave us inequality and injustice of all kinds, despite this epoch ending with the escalation of war.  We are at the end of the old and the beginning of the new; epochs take time to exit and to begin and we are seeing them overlapping now.

So, what does the new epoch promise?  Inclusion, equality in practice, weblike structures for organisations forged in respect for others and the planet.  A post-Capitalist world, where profit is no longer the only driving force, but instead, wellness, interconnectivity, creativity and community are valued.  Where we all get in touch with our feminine (men and women) and we reconnect with the earth as our guide and protector.

James Connolly was a socialist and an anti-colonialist.  He believed in fairness and justice for all and in bringing communities together.  However we wish to see our societies function, we need to remember his wise counsel that in order to be equal, all of the systems simultaneously must change.

Blessings to all on the path.