[Section taken from the book  "The Sharp Knife of Forced Simplicity, Volume 1: The Numinous Rebellion"]

My revolutionary idealism stems from a radical new idea, one that is perhaps completely unheard of in the long course of human history: the idea that every human life is worth exactly the same.

That is to say that race, color, religion, sexuality, political belief, lifestyle, location, net worth, power, cash on hand, social status, health, fashion sense, tribe, history, leadership, virtues, failings, and every other possible way we can distinguish between people has no bearing on how much their life is worth. Put another way, the president’s life is worth no more or less than a prisoner, a sustenance farmer, or you. The law of equality of human life holds true across every spectrum.

I’ve traveled enough of the world to realize that everyone is just like everyone else. We’re all human beings, people, with life and problems and work and family and everyone. There are so few evil men in the world, it is hardly worth noticing. The rest of us are just the rest of us.

€œAll men are created equal.€ We learned that back in elementary school. I wonder how many people in America today actually think about it. Note it does not say €œAll Americans are created equal,€ it is all men, and in the English language the male can be used for the third-person neutral gender. Everyone. Equal.

So we consider the question of defense. How many people can you kill in the name of protecting people? What number of people have to die before the scales of equality tip too far? Seems to me that if defense is the aim, saving lives should be the priority, not taking them.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe, when God was making people, he deemed some lives in terms of worth: how many others can die for this one. Maybe he grouped them all into certain nations, and put the rest in other nations. Maybe he blessed those worth more to see it, and those not worth anything were made blind to the fact.

Somehow I doubt it. Maybe I’m arrogant and ignorant, thinking that if this is how I and my friends live, maybe it’s how people all over the world love and live. Maybe I’m so high on myself I believe everyone feels entitled to his or her life. Maybe everyone else is deluded like me.

[Ron Khare is a local author, blogger and newbie gardener. You learn more about his book at ForcedSimplicity.com]