A Brief History of Equality

Is there anything left to say about equality? Why don’t we all have the same rights? Why don’t we all make the same money, or are equally rich?
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SOUNDBITES:
0:00 Intro
3:08 #1 Inequality is a social, historical, and political construction.
3:31 #2 Since the late 1700s the world has been fighting for equality.
3:50 #3 Equality among humans needs many institutions to keep it going.
4:20 #4 We are far from equality today mainly because the ruling class bitterly opposes it, tooth-and-nail.
4:44 #5 We made progress in health care and education in the world since 1820.
5:08 #6 We make more money today, relative to 1700.
5:27 #7 We have a very unequal relation to nature.
5:54 #8 The deconcentration of power and property happened very slowly over the last 300 years.
6:55 #9 Property is very important in measuring equality.
9:29 #10 The middle-class took a very long time to emerge.
10:27 #11 The military and colonial dominance by Western countries created huge gaps of equality.
13:27 #12 The terrible history of slavery is still affecting equality today.
16:17 #13 Capitalism was all about protecting privileges and opposing equality from the very beginning.
17:30 #14 Sweden in 1900: One Man, a Hundred Votes.
18:54 #15 Equality has always been a work in progress and continues to be.
20:03 #16 Participatory socialism can get us back on track towards equality.
22:36 #17 Between 1914 and 1980, equality improved in many countries. It stopped improving and then it became worse.
29:04 #18 The hyperconcentration of property persists to this day.
30:23 #19 The welfare state and progressive taxation can fundamentally transform capitalism.
32:20 #20 What if we gave everyone at age 25 enough money to start a decent life?
34:55 #21 Equality in education has always been declared but never realized.
37:03 #22 Affirmative action is complicated but it can make us more equal.
38:24 #23 Patriarchy is not over yet. Women are not yet equal with men.
40:10 #24 Equality is not just about individuals, it’s also about countries.
44:40 #25 The fight for equality has to be global.
46:14 #26 Chinese socialism: The Weak Points of a Perfect Digital Dictatorship.
48:01 #27 The mainstream media and capitalism have brainwashed us to believe INEQUALITY is okay and that we all get what we deserve because we live in a meritocracy.
49:57 #28 Equality in conclusion: we need democratic socialism.

[AlexandruTudor]

Excellent video on equality Vlad! It just happens that I'm listening to Graeber's book right now.

[christianperalta]

Underrated video. It is perfectly done.

[ryanosterman]

A good socialist theorist I would recommend (he’s my favorite) is Murray Bookchin. He spent a great deal of time talking about hierarchical institutions. They came and how to dismantle them.

Otherwise great video Vlad!

[blortmeister]

Our minds have been colonized by the teachings of laissez-faire capitalist rhetoric. We can no longer conceive of alternatives to the current power dynamic--and not just in the "golden rule" (he who has the gold makes the rules) way. We are encouraged/trained/driven to see ourselves only as our "betters' are seen: with more. As Steinbeck said "I guess the trouble was that we didn’t have any self-admitted proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed capitalist.”
And even the working class got to live like the potentates of old; first through actual slavery, and then through virtual slavery. The "Energy of Slaves" that comes from fossil fuels (as Andrew Nikiforuk wrote in his book of the same name). You point out how the one percent emit so much more carbon--well, they are using so many more virtual slaves to maintain their lifestyle.
When we consider lowering our carbon footprint, we see only the loss of slaves, and we all become confederate apologists. (I suspect the real white supremacists have a half thought in their heads of "If I have to give up fossil fuels, at least give me back my slaves".) We have been so well colonized that we feel that less of anything is anathema. We have so much trouble seeing that less carbon can mean a richer life. Less cannot lead to more.
Yet those of us who, like me, turned our backs on more for more's sake have found a deeper, richer life. Time with children, time with friends, time to make love lazily in the afternoon. Time to spend in third spaces (not work, not home) finding community. I've proudly identified myself with my ancestors--peasant farmers all--and found the time to develop a rich intellectual life like my great grandfather. He did it stating at the south end of a horse going north, while I did it through books and classes, but we both ended up (in Gramsci's definition) "public intellectuals". We fail to see how less can give us so much more.

[patricksee]

Don’t assume equality’s primacy as a social virtue Vlad. Argue for it. Why is your alleged progress towards social equality in the west desirable? What is wrong with the primacy of some other values such as productivity, social status or wealth?