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Fair retort begging a reply.
Ancient history recalls Sargon, Hammurabi, Imhotep, those who built the Pyramids as well
as those who created the Gardens of Babylon; among hundreds who rose above the crowd
because of their uniqueness.
Notably, tangible achievement and emphatically not crowd applause, was required to sit in the Greek Assembly or the Roman Senate.
From Eden till the Enlightenment, spanning multi-millennia, Man understood and promoted
those unique, as creators that bettered his well being, thru Art, Science or Other Disciplines.
Then the Enlightenment dawned, a fateful turn, led by ideologues such as Danton,
Rousseau and Voltaire who insisted LIBERTE' (Freedom) was Man's highest calling because
of EGALITE' (Equality).
These fanatics asserted that since "we are all equal brothers" our material condition would
improve when Man was free to do as he pleased as he would act in the self interest of all.
Some 300 years later, we continue to believe this horse manure and pay for its consequences.
The things that drive one man to excel, to create to explore, while others are content to live in squalor, may be present at that moment of creation. However, in the context of the Declaration, those things are moot.
It is not what we will accomplish (or not) in life, even the presence of great talent means nothing for those not willing to develop it.
The equality mentioned in the Declaration is to be found in the God-given Rights of all.
Now, what has been considered to be a "right" has, of late, been distorted to encompass the envy and greed of those who proclaim it thus, but in going back to basics, to Life, Liberty, and Property, to the Right to defend what is yours, including all three, to proclaim honorable concepts and deride dishonorable ones, these are all rights we all possess, even if we are not endowed with the ability to do so eloquently.
At the moment of creation, there is no accomplishment, only potential (which means nothing without the desire or will to achieve that potential, and the time to do so), and all of us, left on a hillside for a fortnight would perish. After that moment moment of creation, there is no guaranteed equality except (theoretically, at least, the reason for establishing Governments to protect our Rights) that what we have we keep, unmolested by those who would take it from us, no matter how great or miniscule that is, be it wealth, land, that which we create, our privacy, our ability to defend ourselves and families, our skills, our knowledge, and our freedom to keep our thoughts to ourselves or express them as we see fit, so long as that does not infringe on the rights of others to do the same.
That the product of those abilities will stand or fall on its own merits is the standard all should embrace; none intended to state that the outcomes would be equal,
only the rules.
The success or failure (because the freedom to fail is as essential as the freedom to succeed, in both the development of an individual and their talents, and a society, a nation, as well) will reward or penalize those who act or do not.
No one has a right to the fruits of the labors or talents of others after they were created, save, by convention, those they are responsible to support.
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return
(Genesis 3:19)
But in the end, despite fanfare and trappings, all will be (in this life) equal again.
The next level has different rules, dependent on what we did in this one.
