Which may explain why satire is funny—
and why bureaucracy is nervous.

Or, as Swift might summarize today:

“When laws grow too complex, justice grows selective.”

Equality — When Fairness Becomes a Formula

Equality is a powerful moral idea.  Trouble begins when it’s enforced with a spreadsheet.

On Equality vs. Reality

“The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.”
— Aristotle

(Even ancient philosophers knew averages lie.)

On Equality of Outcome

“We are all equal, but some are more equal than others.”
— George Orwell, Animal Farm

Few lines have aged so uncomfortably well.

On Intentions vs. Results

“The quest for equality has produced a world where we are all equally constrained.”
— H. L. Mencken

Equality pursued without limits often replaces excellence with compliance.

On Administered Fairness

“When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.”
— Thomas Sowell

Fairness becomes subjective the moment it’s measured emotionally.

On Equality as Policy, Not Principle

“A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither.  A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.”
— Milton Friedman

(Freedom creates diversity; Policy tries to erase it.)

On Uniform Outcomes

“There is nothing so unequal as the equal treatment of unequals.”
— Felix Frankfurter

Equal rules applied unquestioningly produce unequal consequences.

On Enforced Sameness

“The surest way to make people alike is to punish anyone who excels.”
— Alexis de Tocqueville (paraphrased from Democracy in America)

Equality enforced from above often flattens from the top down.

On Moral Certainty

“The aim of egalitarianism is not equality, but submission.”
— Attributed to satirical political commentary

(Anonymity protects the honest.)

On Measuring the Immeasurable

“What is measured improves.  What is mandated distorts.”
— Satirical synthesis

Equality is hardest to enforce where it matters most—talent, effort, and judgment.

Quotes

• “Equality enforced is sameness disguised as virtue.”

• “Fairness becomes dangerous when it ignores human difference.”

• “When outcomes matter more than effort, effort disappears.”

• “Equality of rules is simple.  The quality of results is infinite work.”

Closing

Equality works best as a principle—not as a process.
The moment it requires permanent oversight, it ceases to be moral and becomes mechanical.

Or, as Orwell warned without irony:

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

Even—or especially—when that truth isn’t equal.