Abstract

The meaning of equality has been radically altered since the Enlightenment. In the 18th century, equality acquired political and economic meanings specifically in the contexts of democracy and capitalism. Today, the context in which equality is understood and practiced is technology as our most immediate and compelling environment. Moreover, the reality of equality contradicts the ideology of equality within this technological context: The ideology of equality as pluralism and cultural and communicative equality is contradicted by the reality of group conformity and group competition on the one hand and uniformity on the other hand.