Equality achieved becomes the platform for further competition and surpassing

Evidence

As soon as the ego had become sufficiently strengthened by the feeling of equality and universality, it sought once again inequality—but this time an inequality determined only from within. After the individual had been liberated in principle from the rusty chains of guild, hereditary status, and church, the quest for independence continued to the point where individuals who had been rendered independent in this way wanted also to distinguish themselves from one another. What mattered now was no longer that one was a free individual as such, but that one was a particular and irreplaceable individual. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 535 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Liberated individuals turn from equality toward distinguishing themselves from others — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 535; Equality must govern politics even though it is technically a fiction

Related

• Liberated individuals turn from equality toward distinguishing themselves from others (similarity 0.93)
• Equality must govern politics even though it is technically a fiction (similarity 0.88)
• Unlimited individual freedom breeds new repression through natural inequality (similarity 0.84)
• True equality among people is impossible due to inescapable uniqueness (similarity 0.83)
• Individuality and universal equality historically arise as twin reactions to inequality (similarity 0.83)
• The eighteenth century equated individuality with freedom and assumed natural human equality (similarity 0.82)
• Real equality is experienced associationally and requires consciousness to be real (similarity 0.81)
• Inclusive universal claims arise from within the particular (similarity 0.81)
• No institution can fully reconcile social uniformity and individual differentiation. (similarity 0.81)
• Individual uniqueness as a value denies equality rather than grounds it (similarity 0.80)
• Pretended sociable equality is art-like play, not a lie, until reality intrudes (similarity 0.80)
• Modern individuality values being this specific irreplaceable person, not mere freedom (similarity 0.80)
• Equality is produced by political organization, not given by nature (similarity 0.80)
• Modern individualism shifted from freedom-as-such to the value of being this specific irreplaceable self (similarity 0.79)
• Rising individuality necessarily yields belief in mankind’s ideal unity (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Liberated individuals turn from equality toward distinguishing themselves from others #expands (0.85) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 535
• Equality must govern politics even though it is technically a fiction #corroborates (0.75)