A political philosophy built upon the concept of equality, egalitarians believe that people should be treated equally in all respects. Specifically, people “should be treated as equals, should treat one another as equals, should relate as equals, or enjoy an equality of social status of some sort.” While at first this idea may seem like a panacea, there are both positive and negative implications of this philosophy.
Considering the benefits of a society based on equality, discrimination and unfair practices that favored (or priviledged) one group of people over another group would be eliminated (especially in regard to the distribution of wealth and income). All people, regardless of their background or abilities/disabilities, would garner the same respect and hold the same social status in society and this aspect people would be completely free to pursue their passions without being concerned about financial matters (intrinsically motivating factors). For example, a doctor would earn the same salary and hold the same standing as a trash collector.
However, it is this very idea of complete equality that presents the greatest challenge for egalitarianism—without the incentives of greater financial rewards and prestige, there would be little inducement for people to seek more challenging and demanding careers. While there may be a few people who genuinely find manually emptying latrines enjoyable, it is unlikely the average person would voluntarily choose such unpleasant work. Thus, if the task is essential to the functioning of society, there must be some reward or “bonus” to encourage people to perform this vital but necessary job—otherwise the society may crumble.
In thinking about how Lukes may have described Egalitaria in...
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...ans had brown eyes (the only acceptable eye color). The actress was required to wear contact lenses that made her eyes appear brown in an effort to be the same as the rest of the inhabitants.
After the opera, Nicolas returned home with Emily and her family where he quickly fell into a deep sleep. He dreamt of how wonderful it would be to live in a society in which everyone was treated fairly and equally, with no worries about day to day needs like food and shelter—they were all provided and everyone received the same rations and housing (there were no grocery stores because the government controlled the production of goods and distributed them equitability to all citizens) but awoke in a nightmarish state after dreaming of his “reconditioning” at the Equality center if he should accidently do anything that made him appear to stand out from the rest of the citizens.