Supremacy

Supremacists come in all shapes and sorts and sizes - racial supremacists, financial supremacists, intellectual supremacists, physical supremacists, new-age gurus teaching us 'the right way', anti-technology ethical-supremacists... Each of them has 'the right way' for us all.

So what's the truth? Who are the 'best'? It started off, long, long ago (or last week, if you're a Catholic, but that's a different discussion) that it was the men. Now, of course, that's not the case - allegedly. Then, it was the blacks, hispanics, asians... the list goes on. Suffice to say the list has, until recent times, been largely based upon gross physical characteristics, and even those that weren't had typical characteristics assigned to them. Jews, after all, are easily distinguished by their prominent noses and copious amounts of money, are they not?

In modern days, however, a new supremacy has been born. The intelligent are 'better'. The intelligent have the right to do, to be, and everyone else must follow in their wake. Whether it stands up to investigation or not, the Industrial revolution stands up as the birth of the rights movement. With the advent of machines to do the heavy, physical labour for people, the supremacy of physical power was lost. This led, in time, to the Suffragettes, to emancipation of many sorts, and the mainstream belief that physical differences were irrelevant to people's worth, and should not really be considered. That some poor unfortunates choose still to not understand that is sad, but the general sentiment is held.

So now we find that ethic becoming abused itself, as 'equal rights' and 'political correctness' confuse being treated equally with being treated the same for some things, and not others. Being physically stronger and more durable, apparently, is no longer allowed, but being smart is. 'All men are created equal' is the tagline attached to the school of thought that we can't discriminate against women because they are physically less capable of heavy, manual labour over extended periods. Fair enough, but to enforce quotas is no less a discrimination - it isn't judging individuals for themselves either.

Intelligence, though, is fine. Smart people can be sought, and thick people should be put out where they belong. Smart people are better people. Intelligence is influenced by many things: schooling, obviously, and home environment are generally considered the biggest two.... but what do they influence?

Inherent potential, basically. Each of us is born with a likely intelligence, a set talent level. How we are raised will take us slightly above or below that, but that basic potential is determined long before we are born. So if we are all created equal... how can we judge based on that? But we do - smart people have the opportunity to earn more, are accorded respect and authority, and the less cranially gifted aren't.

So if we were to stop doing that, where would we be? Well, there's the artists, or we could try something really original like treating everyone equally - according to their intentions and their abilities, but according them basic respect and affording them opportunities regardless.