We’ve all seen that image. “Equality”. “Equity”. “Justice”.
At first glance, it feels like a complete evolutionary journey. Almost like someone has figured it out for us… start here, evolve a bit, and eventually arrive at something that looks fair. For a long time, I didn’t question it. But lately, something about it has been bothering me. Not in a loud way… just a quiet discomfort. What if even Justice is not where this ends?
In that final frame, the fence disappears.
Everyone can see the game. No one needs support anymore. It almost feels like the problem has been solved. But then I catch myself taking a step back. Why was there a fence at all? And more importantly… why do we still seem to need one?
Because if we’re being honest, we haven’t really removed the need for it.
We’ve just gotten better at designing around it. Somewhere along the way, we seem to have accepted a certain idea. That people need to be managed. And once that settles in, everything else follows quite naturally. Rules. Ownership. Authority. Systems that try to keep things in order. Different forms… same starting point.
I don’t think Equality, Equity or even Justice are wrong. They all try to do something meaningful. But they still feel like responses. Almost like we are constantly adjusting the system to deal with how we behave… instead of asking why we behave the way we do in the first place. Maybe that’s the part we don’t sit with long enough. I’ve also realized that my discomfort is not just with systems. It’s with some of the ideas underneath them.
Ownership, for instance. “This is mine.” “That is yours”. It sounds primal & territorial. Necessary even. But it also quietly draws a line. And once that line is drawn, a lot of other things seem to follow. Protection. Control. Sometimes even a need to prove that what is “mine” matters more.
I don’t know… maybe I’m overthinking it. But I do find myself wondering what changes if that idea shifts just a little. Not mine. Not yours. Just something that is under our care, for a while.
This reminds me of books written by Meik Wiking, viz., “Lykke” & “Hygge”
There’s another thought that keeps coming back. Even if we fix systems, improve them, make them more fair, are we actually getting better at understanding each other? It doesn’t feel like it. If anything, it feels like we’ve become quicker to react, slower to listen.
We don’t really sit with different points of view anymore. Ponder over it. We either agree or we reject. Somewhere in between that space, where two people can see things differently and still respect each other, feels like it’s shrinking. And maybe that’s a bigger problem than the systems themselves. The same thing shows up in how we look at competition.
I don’t think competition is the issue.
But I do wonder whether the way we compete today is driven from fear. Fear of missing out. Fear of being left behind. Fear of not having enough. And when that fear reduces… what happens then? Does collaboration need to be taught? Or does it just… happen?
When I think of a better society, I don’t imagine a world without systems. That feels unrealistic. I don’t imagine empty cities and everyone going back to nature either. We’ve come too far for that to even make sense. But maybe it’s something more subtle. A world where systems exist… but don’t define how we behave. Where we don’t need constant enforcement to do the right thing. Where we can disagree without breaking apart. Where we don’t feel the need to hold on so tightly to what is “ours”. Where we don’t just coexist with each other… but with everything around us.
We are clearly not there yet. And maybe that’s fine.
The idea is not to suddenly arrive somewhere, but to just start moving in that direction. A little more awareness. A little less reaction. A little more willingness to understand. Because if that ever happens. We may not need to keep redesigning systems repeatedly. Not because we perfected them. But because we slowly stopped needing them the way we do today.
Is this a utopian fantasy or can we collectively work towards it? Only We can decide and Time will tell.
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