Inequality and Progress

I break tradition
Sometimes my tries are outside the lines
--Natasha Bedingfield

Some great lines from a great little book written by George Harris in 1897. Like many cogent works from this period, this book could have been written yesterday. Written yesterday in that it addresses misconceptions and popular tripe about 'equality' that persist to this day.

Just a couple of passages:

"The rudimentary societies are characterized by the likeness of equality; the developed societies are marked by the unlikeness of inequality or variety. As we go down, monotony; as we go up, variety. As we go down, persons are more alike; as we go up, persons are more unlike...equality is decline toward the conditions of savagery...variety is advance toward higher civilization.

"Every step of progress means the addition of a human factor that is in some way unlike all existing factors. The progress of civilization, then...must be an increasing diversification of individuals that compose society."

Reference

Harris, G. 1897. Inequality and progress. Cambridge, MA: Houghton, Mifflin and Company.