Dimensions to Political Thinking: Human Equality, Power, and Order

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The issues of equality and inequality between humans turn out to be very significant questions to deal with from many perspectives. The point is that the already existed differences in gender, race, social class, and age introduce a kind of boundary that has to define people and make them unequal to each other.

There are many authors who have already made or try to make numerous attempts to give a clear and comprehensive answer whether all human beings are unequal in essence, and one of the most prominent and captivating ideas are offered by the American writer Glenn Tinder in his Political Thinking. This author introduces a series of educative and illustrative examples of why the development of inequality between people is hard to prevent or avoid and why people cannot improve their lives by means of destruction this inequality.

Even more, he admits that human beings are unequal not only in customs and traditions but also in nature (Tinder, 1995). Human inequality is rooted in nature and is essence due to constant differentiations in numerous aspects like gender or race, and it is difficult to make people forget about these differences; what is more is that this inequality influence many other aspects of life like power and order which are also considered to be integral aspects of this life.

To answer the question whether all human beings are unequal in essence, it is better to address the thoughts of sophisticated philosophers and thinkers who were able to represent powerful grounds for their ideas and suggestions. Tinder suggests to use the ideas of Aristotle and to realize how he saw people and their relations to each other.

This philosopher admitted that human race is one of the most evident hierarchies according to which people became unequal to each other: thinkers and scientists had to take the highest places and those, who believed they were able to perform services for other people, occupied the lowest stage. It proves that people divide themselves unconsciously into groups and develop all those inequalities independently.

Another problem that the author touches in the work is the idea of the elite and its role in society. As it was mentioned above, thinkers and philosophers got a chance to take the leading role in the hierarchy of the society, this is why it was not a surprise that it was them who suggested to create one more group of people who would become better, more educative, more influential, and more important in this life.

The development of the self-chosen elite was inherent to different periods of time, and each period was characterized by its elite those representatives set new rules and meet new demands. This creation of elites may serve as one more evidence that human inequality is something that is difficult to avoid because people themselves promoted this development.

However, there is one more captivating question to deal with. Can it be that human inequality is also able to define the ideas of liberty? Is it true that if people are not equal they lose their freedoms? To answer these questions, Glenn Tinder reminds his readers the ideas of French Revolution and people’s desire to become free and equal.

French people believed that liberty and equality had to go together because inequality happens because of someone’s lack of liberty. This is why it is hard to define what kind of conflict may happen between liberty and equality. Tinder (1995) says that in modern life, people have to “give up one thing… in order to gain something else” (p. 79). So it is natural that people cannot have everything at once.

In his work, Tinder also pays much attention to the ideas of order and power that become evident after the discussions of equality and inequality are cleared up. “Power may be used to separate human beings and to bring them together… may support inequality…may support equality” (Tinder, 1995, p. 103).

Some writers and thinkers truly believe that power is the only means that maintains order. On the one hand, this idea is quite clear and comprehensible because power has to be considered as the only effective source of social order. When inequality promotes the development of power, people get a chance to realize who may achieve power, why a certain group may achieve this power, and what can be done to save this power in the same hands. But still though power is the most effective source of order, it is not the only one.

Tinder (1995) defines several more sources that have a close connection to the development of the social order: human nature (in case people are good in nature), harmony of interests (if order is a spontaneous issue), and human traditions and customs (if people want to appreciate their past and consider the will of their ancestors).

As it is observed, natural power as well as harmony of nature may be regarded as integral sources of order. However, each of them cannot work if there is no power. “Social order cannot be maintained without any use whatever of power yet it is not dependent entirely on power” (Tinder, 1995, p. 107). This is why all the above-mentioned sources have to be connected to this source that plays a crucial role in social life and order development.

Many people cannot give one concrete answer to the question how to achieve power. Though power possessing is honorable, many people suffer because of inability to get this power. This is why it is not strange to observe the development of one more question: if there is some kind of legitimate power? If yes, who may have this power? The answer is almost evident: it is the “divine right of kings” (Tinder, 1995, p. 124).

Those people who are born to be kings have the right to possess power and be unequal in comparison to the others. However, it is not always easy to follow the necessary order, and it is necessary for the kings to maintain further classifications between people and choose those who can help to keep the necessary order and develop power.

In general, such ideas like equality, inequality, power, and order are closely connected to each other. Glenn Tinder represents a clear picture of people should comprehend their power and desire to keep the order, their rights and inability to avoid inequality.

The point is that all people are unequal by nature; they made a decision to develop inequality many years ago and to make only separate groups of people being able to possess power. Is it possible to destroy this inequality? Hardly! Absence of inequality creates considerable challenges in power establishment, lack of power leads to inabilities to keep the order, and absence of order put under a threat peaceful existence of people.

Reference List

Tinder, G. E. (1995). Political Thinking: The Perennial Questions. New York: HarperCollins College Publishers.

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Dimensions to Political Thinking: Human Equality, Power, and Order

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