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Equality should be a given. The mere fact that anybody ever had to fight for equality is absurd. Granted, in older societies, you could perhaps point to ancient views dictating how things were run. Nowadays, you’d like to imagine that we’ve evolved into a society that accepts different views and beliefs and treats people equally. Unfortunately, a quick look at all the protests that regularly go on throughout the world shows that this isn’t the case.
One of the most basic human rights – equality – is still a distant hope for many people and groups all over the world. The question is…why? Why is it so outrageously hard to campaign for equal rights? The answers to the question can vary based on where you are in the world. However, there tends to be a couple that always stick out:
People in power not wanting to change
The people with authority over a population are unlikely to do something that causes a big change. Can you remember the last time a huge decision was made? It was probably when marriage equality laws were brought in and allowed gay couples to legally wed. So many people campaigned against this and there was a huge outcry. So much so that many countries are afraid to pass this law due to the fallback from opponents. Effectively, it comes down to a quote I saw in a piece titled A Few Words About Authority:
- He who is firmly seated in authority soon learns to think security and not progress.
Basically, people in power are too concerned with maintaining their seats than actually helping the world progress. They’re too worried about those who oppose equal rights crusades, rather than actually aiding the people in need. It is no coincidence that countries with lots of excellent equal rights policies had them put in place by leaders that weren’t afraid of progress.
Archaic views set in stone
The biggest struggle is definitely fighting against people who have archaic views that are set in stone. Often, these views stem from culture or religion or even someone’s upbringing. They are taught to think in a certain way based on old beliefs, and the thoughts stay with them throughout life. When someone has a belief based on cultural or religious values, it’s incredibly hard to get them to think a different way. To make matters worse, these people are often very vocal or may hold positions of power.
The only solution to this problem is to educate people. Make the new generation aware of all the bad and unjust situations in the world. Try to use facts to support arguments and explain that a lot of beliefs stem from very old opinions that are no longer valid. As you can imagine, this is no easy task! Hence the battle for equal rights continues to go on.
Again, it’s very strange that something as simple as equality even needs to be debated in modern society. Still, these two reasons do a good job of explaining why we’re not there just yet.
