The Mirage of Universalism

This paper explores the evolving idea of equality by tracing its roots through ancientphilosophy, classical drama, colonial structures, and modern macroeconomic data. Beginningwith the structured hierarchies of Plato and Aristotle, we examine how the conceptof justice was framed around assigned social utility rather than universal rights.Moving forward, Stoic thinkers like Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius presented a contrastingvision—one where human dignity exists independently of status. By integratingclassical foundational thinkers with empirical findings from the World InequalityReport 2026, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s critiques of the caste system, and behavioral psychologyexperiments, this paper argues that social equality is not a natural baseline,but an artificial ethical construct requiring active institutional maintenance againstsystemic forces of wealth and power.