Difference Between Equality And Sameness

People fight for equality for all individuals, each person treated the exact same. The problem with this fighting stance is that the equality they want accomplished is not actually equality. Equality means that each person is given equal opportunity to do what they desire. This opportunity does not guarantee that people will pursue those desires, but the opportunity stays available for them. When people want exact same treatment for each individual, they are actually fighting for sameness rather than equality. Sameness is defined as each person treated the exact same; no individual is superior or inferior to another, so there is no difference between individuals. Over the centuries the terms equality and sameness have become interchangeable
When a society forces an individual to act the exact same as another, he performs below his capability. A sameness society disregards that individual as a human but treats him more as a small part of a machine, a dehumanized individual; this dehumanized individual is likened to a robot, a machine instructed to comply at any given time without complaint. This sameness society produces no goal for a person to strive for. When an individual knows that he has nothing to strive for, he becomes complacent. This complacency keeps the person from working hard, creating a lack of drive and motivation to make new discoveries. Complacency is acceptable in a sameness society but intolerable in an equal society. In an equal society, each person has the same amount of chances to make these new discoveries because obtainable and realistic goals are present. A society of equality encourages individuals to have creativity because creativity advances the state; equality requires free individuals rather than dehumanized individuals. An advocate for equality is Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton recognizes that society treats women as dehumanized individuals. She argues that women and men should have equal rights: “[W]oman is man’s equal- - was intended to be so by the Creator, and the highest good of the race demands that she should be recognized as such.” (Stanton, pp. 61). Since the Creator creates humans to reflect Him, individuals are born with equal
Sameness strives to have all individuals appear, work, and process information the exact same way. This sameness can only be accomplished if people have similar characteristics and abilities. If a person is born with a birth defect, like down syndrome or blindness, then this image of sameness cannot continue to exist because one of its citizens looks or acts different than the rest, resulting in the sameness society removing the problem individual. An example of a sameness society excommunicating people is Adolf Hitler in World Word II. Hitler convinces German citizens that the Jewish nation was born with this type of birth defect and the only way to resolve this problem was to eradicate the entire race. Hitler’s desire to create a master race stemmed from wanting this sameness society. Instead of including these anomalies into the sameness society, those people are removed for the benefit of the whole. Sameness terminates these differences while equality embraces them. Equality is only equal when people of different backgrounds and thought processes are given equal opportunities to achieve their desires. This opportunity does not guarantee success, but the option is there despite the outcome. People with different abilities and those with anomalies make equality possible by existing within a society. These differences are celebrated rather than discouraged because having diversity in a society sustains