Political inequality

Whenever tyranny attempts to subject the majority of the people to the will of a minority, it exploits the prejudices and ignorance of its victims, and seeks to compensate by the vigour and unity of a small force for the lack of that real strength which, it seems, must necessarily belong to the majority. But the ultimate aim of tyranny, which it only rarely attains, is to establish real differences between masters and slaves, and so, as it were, to make nature herself an accomplice of political inequality. 

In the alienation and despair of Joe s relationship with the puppet and his mother, we are perhaps reminded of the young men in Saved who, in killing the baby, are, at an ontological level, also killing themselves. The violence of the world, it might be argued, transmutes its causes of social and political inequality and injustice. Like a deadly virus, perhaps, it infects and destroys the young men in the park and Joe. 

Smith, D., "Addressing Racial Inequalities in Health Civil Rights Monitoring and Report Cards," Hlth. Politics Policy L., 23, 75-105 (1998). 

Samuel Morton, Crania Americana A Comparative View of the Skulls of Various Aboriginal Natives of North and South America, to which Is Prefixed an Essay on the Variety of Human Species (Philadelphia J. Dobson, 1839), p. 5 Arthur Comte de Gobineau, The Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races with Particular Reference to Their Respective Influence on the Civil and Political History of Mankind (Philadelphia Lippincott, 1856), p. 439 Arthur Comte de Gobineau, Essay on the Inequality of Human Races, in Michael Bediss, ed., Selected Political Writings (New York Harper and Row, 1970), p. 136. 

Ruth Benedict, Race Science and Politics [1940] (Westport Greenwood, 1982), p. 126 Samuel Morton, Crania Americana (Philadelphia J. Dobson, 1839), p. 16 Gobineau, Inequality of the Human Races, p. 73, emphasis added Theodore Parker, The Aspect of Slavery in America [1858], Saint Bernard and Other Papers (Boston American Unitarian Association, 1911), pp. 271, 280, 276-277. 

Microbial adaptation and change Human susceptibility to infection Climate and weather Changing ecosystems Human demographics and behavior Economic development and land use International travel and commerce Technology and industry Breakdown of public health measures Poverty and social inequality War and famine Lack of political will Intent to harm... 

Later, Athens extended the political elite so that it included all Athenian citizens and thus ceased to be an elite. This created a social system in which full equality in one respect went together with large degrees of inequality in another. As Aristotle notes in the Politics, this is not a stable situation "For the one party, if they are unequal in one respect, for example wealth, consider themselves to be unequal in all and the other party, if they are equal in one respect, for example free birth, consider themselves to be equal in all" (1280 23-25). Thus, whereas both offsetting inequalities and equality across the board may reduce envy, the coexistence of equality and inequality will exacerbate it ... 

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