The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm:
https://archive.org/details/TheArtOfLoving
This increasing tendency for the elimination of differences
is closely related to the concept and the experience of equal-
ity, as it is developing in the most advanced industrial
societies. Equality had meant, in a religious context, that we
are all God's children, that we all share in the same human-
divine substance, that we are all one. It meant also that the
very differences between individuals must be respected, that
while it is true that we are all one, it is also true that each
one of us is a unique entity, is a cosmos by itself. Such con-
viction of the uniqueness of the individual is expressed for
instance in the Talmudic statement: "Whosoever saves a
single life is as if he had saved the whole world; whosoever
destroys a single life is as if he had destroyed the whole
world." Equality as a condition for the development of in-
dividuality was also the meaning of the concept in the
philosophy of the Western Enlightenment. It meant (most
clearly formulated by Kant) that no man must be the means
for the ends of another man. That all men are equal inas-
much as they are ends, and only ends, and never means to
each other. Following the ideas of the Enlightenment, Social-
ist thinkers of various schools defined equality as abolition of
exploitation, of the use of man by man, regardless of whether
this use were cruel or "human."
In contemporary capitalistic society the meaning of equal-
ity has been transformed. By equality one refers to the
equality of automatons; of men who have lost their indi-
viduality. Equality today means "sameness" rather than
"oneness." It is the sameness of abstractions, of the men who
work in the same jobs, who have the same amusements, who
read the same newspapers, who have the same feelings and
the same ideas. In this respect one must also look with some
skepticism at some achievements which are usually praised
as signs of our progress, such as the equality of women. Need-
less to say I am not speaking against the equality of women;
but the positive aspects of this tendency for equality must
not deceive one. It is part of the trend toward the elimina-
tion of differences. Equality is bought at this very price:
women are equal because they are not different any more.
The proposition of Enlightenment philosophy, Vame n*a pas
de sexe, the soul has no sex, has become the general practice.
The polarity of the sexes is disappearing, and with it erotic
love, which is based on this polarity. Men and women be-
come the same, not equals as opposite poles. Contemporary
society preaches this ideal of unindividualized equality be-
cause it needs human atoms, each one the same, to make
them function in a mass aggregation, smoothly, without fric-
tion; all obeying the same commands, yet everybody being
convinced that he is following his own desires. Just as mod-
ern mass production requires the standardization of com-
modities, so the social process requires standardization of
man, and this standardization is called "equality.'