7. On Equality:The greatest equality is death; the greatest inequality is intellect.

From the perspective of innate endowment, humans share many similarities at birth while differing in numerous aspects. For instance, identical biological structures and the universal cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death make all people equal in these respects; yet distinct physical features, varying physical abilities, and differing intellectual capacities render humanity unequal in these dimensions.

Among all forms of equality, death stands as the ultimate equalizer; among all forms of inequality, intellectual disparity represents the most profound divide. All artificially created inequalities in human society, when traced to their root cause, ultimately stem from intellectual inequality. It is precisely this disparity in intellect that progressively gives rise to various social inequalities.

Conversely, if all humans were born with identical intellect, societal inequality would cease to exist. This conclusion can be verified through a simple thought experiment. In our essay "On Exploitation," we demonstrated that exploitation cannot arise in a human group where every member must labor for survival. Only when a group's productive forces advance to the point where a minority's labor can sustain the entire collective does exploitation gradually emerge, bringing social inequality in its wake. If everyone possessed identical intellect, any individual attempting to gain without contributing would be immediately recognized by others as harboring exploitative motives. Under such circumstances, this person seeking unearned advantage could never deceive others through charlatanism, religious establishment, or doctrinal creation. Since others shared equal intellect, they could not be deceived. Therefore, if everyone possessed equal intellect, deception could not emerge in human society, much less flourish. This implies that societal rulers could not govern the ruled through deception. To maintain social order, any institutional design must equally consider everyone's interests; otherwise, the system would be unworkable. Thus, if all possessed equal intellect, artificially created social inequality could not arise. Yet human intellect is inherently unequal. Once society reaches a stage where some can reap rewards without effort, intellectually superior individuals, driven by self-interest, will inevitably secure these unearned positions first. Having attained such positions, they cannot voluntarily relinquish them. Instead, they will exploit their intellectual advantage to exhaustively defend their dominance. Thus, various rituals, religions, doctrines, ideologies, etiquette, and institutions emerge—all fundamentally serving as meticulously crafted deceptive mechanisms designed by the intellectually dominant to perpetuate their rule. Throughout societal evolution, this privileged, high-intellect group continuously accumulates and refines these deceptive tactics of domination. Following this trajectory of domination, social equality would be steadily eroded until it is utterly extinguished. Yet reality defies this expectation. Despite the relentless intensification of social inequality, humanity's yearning for equality persists undiminished—a resilience owed entirely to the equalizing effect of death.

Although the intellectually dominant ruling class may leverage their cognitive advantage to secure power, they inevitably face mortality. They must inevitably pass their authority to successors. The intellectual capacity of these successors may be high or low, as human intelligence exhibits significant natural randomness. Thus, after just a few generations of succession, individuals of lower intellect are bound to assume leadership roles, leading to a gradual decline in the collective intelligence of the ruling class. Concurrently, intellectually inferior members of the ruled class possess an equal probability of producing intellectually superior offspring. These intellectually gifted individuals among the ruled can effortlessly discern the deceptions of the ruling class. If such intellectually capable members of the ruled class cannot successfully ascend to the ruling class, severe societal inequality will inevitably arise. Once this imbalance becomes critical, the intellectually superior ruled class will overthrow the existing ruling structure and establish a system aligned with their own interests. This act of overthrowing the existing ruling structure, to a certain extent, alleviates the intensification of social inequality, allowing social equality to return to a certain degree.

Through the above analysis, we can draw this conclusion: intelligence drives inequality in human society, while death hinders inequality in human society. Since both intelligence and death are bestowed by nature, we can further conclude that inequality and equality within society are also bestowed by nature. Given this, humanity should neither blindly pursue equality nor recklessly tolerate inequality. Instead, we must find the optimal balance between the two to maximize human welfare.

The key to this solution lies in harnessing death's equalizing force to counterbalance the social inequality stemming from intelligence. Before the establishment of modern democratic systems, all social structures allowed intellectual disparities to run rampant. This very failure led to the repeated collapse of social structures and the relentless unfolding of human tragedies. To resolve these issues, the great sages of antiquity established modern democratic systems. They understood profoundly that equality is the foundation of freedom—without equality, there can be no freedom; equality is the foundation of fairness—without equality, there can be no fairness; and only a society grounded in equality, freedom, and fairness is a democratic society, with equality serving as democracy's bedrock. Thus, these sages endeavored to integrate the principle of equality into modern democratic systems. Regrettably, when designing democratic systems, these thinkers did not completely abolish social inheritance. They abolished the inheritance of power, but the inheritance of property remained widespread. Private wealth accumulated through inheritance systems, leading to ever-widening social inequality in democratic nations. Therefore, inheritance systems must be completely abolished. The unequal status attained through one's own efforts by the intellectually gifted should vanish upon their death, preventing inheritance systems from passing this social inequality to the next generation. In essence, every intellectually capable individual should attain a more advantageous social position through their own abilities and contributions. Yet this position must be held solely by the individual and cannot be passed on. This approach permits the social inequality arising from intellectual disparities while allowing death to genuinely fulfill its role in achieving social equality. Only thus can a true equilibrium be attained between inequality and equality.