Essay - Is Social Inequality Inevitable? the Appeal of the TV Show...

Is social inequality inevitable?

The appeal of the TV show Star Trek lay in part ***** the utopian society the starship crewmembers represented. The egalitarian ideal that was realized fictionally in ***** show allowed each crewmember, from lowliest grunt to the captain, to express his or her highest calling via job descriptions, while each—again from the ***** grunt to ***** *****—got the same pay. Actually, that ***** no ***** at all, but rather the wherewithal to live an abund*****t life with the only differences between them being in how they chose to spend their spare time (visit*****g the holodeck or an exotic planet, for example). Still, there was at least implied inequality in the form of rank; ***** captain ***** the leader and had to be obeyed. Indeed, he was in an almost godlike position; rather than giving orders, he simply said, "Make it so," which seems very much like saying "Let there be light." From Picard's mind to existence, so to speak.

If there ***** inequality in this fictional universe, despite the best attempts of the writers ***** avoid it, how much more *****equality must there inevitably be in actual societies struggl*****g to get along on a small ball ***** earth and water hurtling through space? *****, e***** facet of human investigation, from spirituality ***** ma*****atics, also suggests the inevitability of inequality. Stasis, in ***** natural order, does *****t last eternally; every natural system is always in danger of descend*****g into chaos without intervention. Just so, should equality ever be achieved, it, too, would be in danger of d*****integrating ***** inequality without constant attention, and perhaps with it. While a num*****r of social reformers, including Emile Durkheim, Max Weber and Karl Marx, espoused a society *****out inequality, in fact, it seems that each believed ***** was *****.

Among Marx's beliefs were that ***** person ***** directly receive the fruits of his or her own labor or contribution to society. On the ot***** hand, he also realized that one man may be superior physically or mentally to another, and therefore will supply ***** labor. Alternatively, perhaps one man can work harder or longer than ***** without tiring. *****ref*****e, he developed a sort of equalizing equation: labor should ***** defined by its duration or intensity, or it would not ***** as a standard of me*****urement and equality. His equation, noted Bender, "recognizes no class *****, because everyone is only a worker like ***** else; but it tacitly recognizes unequal individual endowment and thus productive capacity as natural privileges" (1986, p. 280; (Levy, 2002, p. 77+). It should be noted, however, ***** "Marxists stigmatize all those who accept inequalities in *****come, power, and status characteristic of capitalist *****, as apologists for the in*****ities of capitalism" (Freedman, 1990, p. 42).

***** short, it seems inequality is inherent in ***** human condition.

Still, Marx gets around it, still hoping to posit some sort of universal equality the human body denies, ***** proposing that "***** individuals (and ***** would not be different individuals if they