No permanent human social group has ever been fully egalitarian

Evidence

In living among others, we always have a status position, and this position determines the quality of our daily life. This fact is not just true for contemporary individuals struggling to stay afloat in late capitalism, but has been the case for all humans throughout history. The pioneering sociologist Pitirim Sorokin declared, “Any organized social group is always a stratified social body. There has not been and does not exist any permanent social group which is ‘flat,’ and in which all members are equal. Unstratified society, with a real equality of its members, is a myth which has never been realized in the history of mankind.” — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 56

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: No attempt to abolish group hierarchy in surplus societies has succeeded; No plan for a perfect society can withstand unpredictable human plurality — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 204; No society with economic surplus has ever abolished arbitrary-set hierarchy — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3171 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• No society with economic surplus has ever abolished arbitrary-set hierarchy #corroborates (0.92) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3171
• No attempt to abolish group hierarchy in surplus societies has succeeded #corroborates (0.90)
• Leaders and hierarchies inevitably emerge in large groups regardless of horizontalist ideals #expands (0.85) — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 901
• True equality among people is impossible due to inescapable uniqueness #expands (0.78) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 187
• The abstract ideal of human equality secretly serves totalitarian homogenization #complicates (0.76) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 117
• In egalitarian societies discrimination becomes the only available means of distinction #complicates (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 192
• No institution can fully reconcile social uniformity and individual differentiation. #expands (0.74) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 710
• No political consensus could exist free of exclusion #expands (0.73) — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 139
• Every human society contains exclusive groups, so group existence alone is not caste. #qualifies (0.73)
• No plan for a perfect society can withstand unpredictable human plurality #qualifies (0.72) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 204