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    Former Guinness World Record Holder for largest book signing ever, Orrin Woodward is a NY Times bestselling author of And Justice For All along with RESOLVED & coauthor of LeaderShift and Launching a Leadership Revolution. His books have sold over one million copies in the financial, leadership and liberty fields. RESOLVED: 13 Resolutions For LIFE made the Top 100 All-Time Best Leadership Books and the 13 Resolutions are the framework for the top selling Mental Fitness Challenge personal development program.

    Orrin made the Top 20 Inc. Magazine Leadership list & has co-founded two multi-million dollar leadership companies. Currently, he serves as the Chairman of the Board of the LIFE. He has a B.S. degree from GMI-EMI (now Kettering University) in manufacturing systems engineering. He holds four U.S. patents, and won an exclusive National Technical Benchmarking Award.

    This blog is an Alltop selection and ranked in HR's Top 100 Blogs for Management & Leadership.

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Egalitarianism Leads to Unjust Inequalities

Posted by Orrin Woodward on July 7, 2015

I love providing a business where everyone has an equal opportunity. No one should be hindered from progressing towards their dreams because of race, religion, or sex so long as they also do not hinder others. Unfortunately, the proper quest for equal opportunity has now morphed into an unjust demand for equal results. This is not only impossible physically, but extremely dangerous metaphysically. For the only way to create equality of results is to coercively take private property from some to give to others. In other words, in the quest for equality of results, the quest for liberty and justice is thrown out the window.

As Chairman of the Board of LIFE Leadership, I know everyone who enters our business has equality of opportunity (they have the same compensation plan), but also know the results will vary based upon efforts, people skills, and  leadership abilities. Thankfully, even if one starts out with little abilities in any of these categories, with persistency, he or she can still climb to the top. In effect, it’s not how bad a person is when they start that matters as much as how willing he/she is to change. If the dream is big enough, a person can change until the “facts” are in his/her favor. Indeed, I have seen this process occur many times in the LIFE Leadership community.

This, however, would all change if government were to mandate equality of results rather than equality of opportunity. For anytime equality of results is enforced, what ensues is a race to the bottom as each person seeks to do the minimum amount possible since no extra efforts are rewarded. This has been proven historically by the failure of every communist regime to even feed its people let alone prosper. Below, I attached a short article on the Greek myth Procrustes and a short section of Murray Rothbard’s brilliant article on inequality. Please share your thoughts below.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Procrustes is the legendary Greek robber dwelling somewhere in Attica. Procrustes had an iron bed on which he compelled his victims to lie. Here, if a victim was shorter than the bed, he stretched him by hammering or racking the body to fit. Alternatively, if the victim was longer than the bed, he cut off the legs to make the body fit the bed’s length. In either event the victim died. Ultimately Procrustes was slain by his own method by the young Attic hero Theseus as a young man slayed robbers and monsters whom he encountered while traveling from Trozen to Athens. The “bed of Procrustes,” or “Procrustean bed,” has become proverbial for arbitrarily—and perhaps ruthlessly—forcing someone or something to fit into an unnatural scheme or pattern.

The New Coercive Elite

Procrustes Equality

Procrustes Equality

When we confront the egalitarian movement, we begin to find the first practical, if not logical, contradiction within the program itself: that its outstanding advocates are not in any sense in the ranks of the poor and oppressed, but are Harvard, Yale, and Oxford professors, as well as other leaders of the privileged social and power elite. What kind of “egalitarianism” is this? If this phenomenon is supposed to embody a massive assumption of liberal guilt, then it is curious that we see very few of this breast-beating elite actually divesting themselves of their worldly goods, prestige, and status, and go live humbly and anonymously among the poor and destitute. Quite the contrary, they seem not to stumble a step on their climb to wealth, fame, and power. Instead, they invariably bask in the congratulations of themselves and their like-minded colleagues of the high-minded morality in which they have all cloaked themselves.

Perhaps the answer to this puzzle lies in our old friend Procrustes. Since no two people are uniform or “equal” in any sense in nature, or in the outcomes of a voluntary society, to bring about and maintain such equality necessarily requires the permanent imposition of a power elite armed with devastating coercive power. For an egalitarian program clearly requires a powerful ruling elite to wield the formidable weapons of coercion and even terror required to operate the Procrustean rack: to try to force everyone into an egalitarian mold. Hence, at least for the ruling elite, there is no “equality” here — only vast inequalities of power, decisionmaking, and undoubtedly, income and wealth as well.

Thus, the English philosopher Antony Flew points out that “the Procrustean ideal has, as it is bound to have, the most powerful attraction for those already playing or hoping in the future to play prominent or rewarding parts in the machinery of enforcement.” Flew notes that this Procrustean ideal is “the uniting and justifying ideology of a rising class of policy advisors and public welfare professionals,” adding significantly that “these are all people both professionally involved in, and owing to their past and future advancement to, the business of enforcing it.”

That the necessary consequence of an egalitarian program is the decidedly inegalitarian creation of a ruthless power elite was recognized and embraced by the English Marxist-Lenist sociologist Frank Parkin. Parkin concluded that “Egalitarianism seems to require a political system in which the state is able to hold in check those social and occupational groups which, by virtue of their skills or education or personal attributes, might otherwise attempt to stake claims to a disproportionate share of society’s rewards. The most effective way of holding such groups in check is by denying the right to organize politically, or, in other ways, to undermine social equality. This presumably is the reasoning underlying the Marxist-Leninist case for a political order based upon the dictatorship of the proletariat.”

But how is it that Parkin and his egalitarian ilk never seem to realize that this explicit assault on “social equality” leads to tremendous inequalities of power, decisionmaking authority, and, inevitably, income and wealth? Indeed, why is this seemingly obvious question never so much as raised among them? Could there be hypocrisy or even deceit at work?

26 Responses to “Egalitarianism Leads to Unjust Inequalities”

  1. Ralph Heins said

    I believe 5 families control the world.

  2. Yes, Orrin–there is hypocrisy and deceit at work, especially in the realm of spiritual warfare!! Far too many people, even people of faith, do not recognize this…and then find themselves wondering HOW in the world some other people groups gain so much power, in so little time! We must learn to stand against the wiles of the devil, and this is what I love most about LIFE Leadership–it gives us the tools to help us in this massive endeavor. Part of the problem is convincing others that they would indeed benefit greatly from these tools! I just pray for them, and keep my eye out for yet another opportunity when they will hopefully see the LIGHT. I suppose people have to first realize they are in darkness before they can recognize the LIGHT. It is sad that so many do not understand this, though.

  3. Chad Waters said

    Hi Orrin!

    Truly amazing how winning is just a choice in what you have provided for us with Life Leadership and the resolve to the Financial Matrix.
    God bless for all you’ve done for this equal playing field!

  4. Nancy Monsipapa said

    thank you for always helping me understand what i used to think was beyond my grasp to understand!

  5. Hilary Dorr said

    I’m sure glad I don’t have to have my legs cut off to get equality of results…just hard work and growth! Thanks, Orrin

  6. Ramon said

    I come from this world and I wish I could respond adequately. The privileged coming to help the disenfranchised do it out of guilt, desire, or responsibility (we felt obligated to give back (don’t read: guilt; read: our privilege is for our purpose-giving back). At the end of the day, your final point is accurate. There never is an answer to that question. Inequalities are natural and exist in every scenario, the only difference is who is on top and what their payout is. I guess those advocating “equity” vilify those currently on top enough to justify replacing them with those who want equality for all. Great post Orrin.

  7. Reminds of Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”:

    “THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213 th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.”

    A great read for anyone who’s never read it, and a timely re-read for those who have: https://archive.org/stream/HarrisonBergeron/Harrison%20Bergeron_djvu.txt

    • Orrin Woodward said

      Scott, I haven’t read it, but have heard great things about Vonnegut’s work. I’ll check it out. 🙂 thanks, Orrin

    • Elaine Mallios said

      I am familiar with Vonnegut’s works. We called it the “buswazi” or control boss. So true today.

  8. CJ Calvert said

    Orrin, fantastic blog post as always. It amazes me that some people believe by imposing controls to keep people at the same level, that they would expect the top contributors, the most proactive or society, to simply shrug and “take it.” not likely!

    • Thus the origin of the title of the book, “Atlas Shrugged” which is the objectivist, though in my opinion, not the best response to egalitarianism.

  9. Chad Palmer said

    Orrin, this article reminds me of a talk where the coach had his players rotate through all the positions on the football team so no one was master of their best position. (Procrustes table)Needless to say the team never won a game and the coach was fired. God has given all of us unique gifts and talents. Each of us are truly one of a kind, Life Leadership is a equal playing field to magnify our strengths and shore up our weaknesses as a team/family and through Jesus Christ’s atonement we are already victorious.

  10. Steve Duba said

    Thanks Orrin. Great lesson. I found an old book in some of my families stuff. I have been enjoying it immensely. Its called “Man’s Great Adventure”by Edwin W Pahlow. Chapter 1 ” Showing how the historian, like the detective, seeks meanings in what he finds. It reminds me of both yours and George’s blogs. You both are always digging for truth and finding correlations with our current culture. I see Lifeleadership having the keys to unlock the RACK of bondage setting people free to pursue their God given purpose. Thank you so much. Proud to be a part.

  11. Renee oettinger said

    I pray we will reach many with this truth and make a marked difference with the next generation. Thanks for sharing your wisdom

  12. tim m said

    Thanks again for showing us that job-optional doesn’t equal idleness, nor self absorption. We all need more learning using our gifts towards our purpose. Thanks for clearing up egalitarianism for me (beyond the droning of a classroom, I hadn’t given it a thought).

  13. John said

    Our country’s govt is headed at break neck speed to this concept, recent supreme ct rulings, civil case law out of Oregon, everyone will be the same. God did not make us like this, he made us in his image, but we are allowing forces to change the Image to conform with this world. If I as a business owner have to be controlled by the Govt, do I have control or do they? How much does Ceaser want us to render?

  14. Olivier Jean-Baptiste said

    Thanks for this great post Orrin!!!

    Words like “equality”, “justice” , “fairness” are often used distortedly by the parasitic elites to lure the masses into bondage. The end game is
    to blind the masses with passion by keeping them ignorant about human nature in order to perpetrate spoliation masqueraded as justice. But speaking of the Grand Social Law Bastiat stated in his essay The Natural History of Spoliation:

    “The true and equitable law of humanity is the free exchange of service for service. Spoliation consist in destroying by force or by trickery the
    freedom of exchange in order to receive a service without rendering one”

    Thanks for speaking truth Orrin!!!

    Olivier

  15. Ken Hendon said

    Thanks for the needed post Orrin. Words have meaning and if that meaning is perverted we lose our ability to think critically. Without critical thinking we lose our ability to solve the financial and social matrix problems.

  16. Doug Clarke said

    Great post as always Orrin.
    What I see happening is a disconnect between helping people get over the bar (the right thing to do, love your neighbor as yourself, encourage, find the good) and lowering the bar for certain individuals (trying to guarantee equality of results regardless of effort or competence). The latter may seem to help those individuals temporary but hurts all of us in the long term.

  17. Tina Abernathy said

    Interesting article Orrin!

    I have not read enough to really grasp all that this term means. Yet, I believe that anytime one or a group of elites wants to so called “make everyone equal” its really about them being superior and believing for some reason that they must level the paying field for the “sub-par”humans but not for themselves. The “Procrustes Table” lead to death which is often what the Elites really want. The death of the masses thinking, moving, growing becoming educated so that they can then tell them all the need to know to keep the “Equal/Dead”. Modern Day Slavery…..once again.

    Still Searching……

  18. Teresa said

    Thank you very much for this blog Orrin. I don’t think I’ve ever heard this concept put quite so eloquently.
    As a manager, I have had several employees who receive welfare. (The only reason I know is that the company gets some sort of benefit by reporting it – not sure I fully understand, but the idea seems a little fishy.) We are currently grossly understaffed. It can sometimes be very frustrating when I ask employees to go form working part time to working full time and they refuse because then they would be making “too much” and would therefore no longer qualify for government help. Definitely not conducive to a culture of hard work.

  19. Bob Rasmussen said

    Thanks Orrin for always leading to the truth, your millions of Rascals will not rest when being fed this truth and we will all help you pursue and protect our freedoms, God Bless you

  20. Elaine Mallios said

    This is deeper than I can probably think! I will tell you that my daughter is now in Greece. She said that she feels like “Bonny and Clyde” going from ATM to ATM to get money. The catastrophe in Greece is a perfect example of the elites controlling the masses. The people truly believe they do not deserve to have any benefits taken away from them. “Retire at fifty and let the government pay your pension.” This is unsustainable. At this point, they do not have any currency. Euro’s will run out soon. Drachma’s are not in place and do not have any backing. It will be fiat money. Soon, hunger and deprivation will occur. It is a bleak future for them.

    • unfortunately, the US has so many people with the same mentality. Everybody knows we need to cut government spending somewhere, just don’t cut the benefit to them.

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