Wednesday 8 December 2010

Equality and Merit

Tonight the Moral Debate on BBC Radio 4 is "Equality v. Merit".
There is no equality.
Not while British servicemen are being wounded and killed in combat.
It is strange that the English language has more words than any other, yet the word "discrimination", basically a "good" word, is, for want of another, generally used in a perjorative context.
It used to be, in Britain, that the phrase "class distinction" was common currency. (Please see my letter to "The Japan Times" of 17 March 1962.)
It has gone out of fashion, but the gap between rich and poor nowadays is said to be as great as it was in the 19th century.
It is not foreigners, even those who have acquired British nationality, who need laws to allow them to deprive native British men of work and promotion.
It's the poor English who need laws to protect them.
That's where the true "merit", the guiding star of Buddhists, lies.