Țuțea on Equality

151 words

Translator’s Note:

Petre Țuțea was a Romanian anti-communist dissident. The following is one of the entries from his popular dictionary of aphorisms 322 de vorbe memorabile ale lui Petre Țuțea (“322 Memorable Words from Petre Țuțea,” Bucharest: Humanitas, 2009 [1993]), 45. 

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In the French Revolution’s famous Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen, the first proposition is either an absolute idiocy or at best a sophism: men are naturally equal. That’s as if Kant were equal to Iliescu.[1] 

Men are naturally unequal. They are unequal members of one family, in which one can be brilliant, another mediocre, and another an imbecile. Hereditary substance is a mystery. 

Equality is the greatest enemy of freedom. 

The principle of equality, promoted by the world’s democrats, actually only functions in religion, because only the Christian religion considers men equal before God.

Note

1. Ion Iliescu, Romania’s first post-communist president, whom Țuțea considered demonic.