There are two popular concepts in society that when singled out might sound meaningful, but when coupled together fall short as cute but contradictory: Everyone is equal & Everyone is special.
In truth, on a global level, everyone isn’t equal or special; was this the case the two concepts would lose purpose. Special as a word defines something that isn’t normative. If everyone’s special, then special becomes a norm which goes against what it signifies. Everyone wouldn’t be special; everyone would just be everyone. In other words, equal.
On paper, everyone is equal can be seen as everyone has equal rights. Equality exists as a word, meaning sameness (1+1=2) or degree of sameness (1+0.9≈2). Because “equal” is not practiced in reality, it must be measured. In theory, equality among people can be expressed through the concept of rights. This is a heartful idea, but if everyone had the same rights, would there be a need in pointing them out? When you look at a mass of people you don’t point out that everyone wears the same hats, unless it’s a unique situation. If everyone was truly equal, if everyone was the same, sociologists wouldn’t have much to study. I’m not saying that rights are pointless, but that they’re obvious. At least they should be, because only a not-so-completely-developed persona needs to be told that their individual rights aren’t the only rights that matter to humanity. Having “equal rights” written down on a bill of rights/amendments might serve as a meaningful statement in all its fairness, especially defining exactly what these rights are, but egoistic minds will still not think “equal rights”.
Everyone isn’t special.* Individual is what everyone is, much like how no snowflake is similar to the other if you take a good close look at one of them; but wouldn’t a special flake be one that you could pinpoint in a heap of snow? A special person is someone who you’ll spot in the masses pouring over a cross-section during rush hour. That one who’s dressed in 10 different colors.
*Maybe this could be why so many of us feel bad about our self-image when we compare it to others? We want everyone to be equally special (a wish that might be seen as a logic syntax error) but fail to identify our own individuality. Who knows – this could relate to an inner envy – If others are special, while I’m not special, this means there’d have to be winners and losers & I don’t want to be a loser! After all, one of the things people are bothered by the most nowadays seems to be other peoples Facebook-statuses. We’re obviously obsessed with the idea of comparing our lives with others; just to reassure ourselves that no one is really better than us – but damned be those people who dare to live a more special life!
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