Balancing Equality and Freedom in America

The concepts of freedom and equality can never coexist ideologically, and it is ironic that the two are so closely linked through American history. Freedom entails liberty and independence, and it is based on the idea of self sovereignty. Translated into literature, freedom emphasizes the importance of the individual and self discovery. America was founded upon these very ideals, and it is uniquely American to place high priority upon maintaining this idea of individualism. Simultaneously, American political culture continues to stress the significance of equal opportunity, and its Declaration of Independence includes the infamous statement that all men were created equal. The idea of equality comes into direct conflict with that of individualism, as equality is inevitably linked to a decreasing disparity among people. Although equality protects the majority, it also shuns in a social context those who are not among the norm. Whilst freedom is based on the self, equality focuses on people as one entity. American literature tends to associate freedom with the unknown, generally representing the self in forms of untainted and pure nature. Equality is similarly linked to civilization and urbanization, and the idea is often muddied with human corruption. While any person can hypothetically learn to be free, all people are paradoxically both equal in the sense that they are human and unequal because every human being is different. Political and social equality is always an abstract concept because true equality only exists on a very basic level of universal human capacities. Thus, American equality is a man made idea, coming into direct conflict with freedom, which originates from a knowledge of one's innate being.