Equality Quote by Bernard Williams

A snowstorm is democracy without the flattering myth of choice: it arrives whether you voted for it or not, and once it does, everyone answers to the same weather. That’s the sly efficiency of Bern Williams’s line. It borrows the warm glow of “democratic” while quietly stripping it of its usual civic romance. Snow doesn’t negotiate, doesn’t care about status, doesn’t grant exemptions. The CEO’s commute and the line cook’s commute become equally absurd. Airports close, schools shutter, supply chains hiccup, and the city’s carefully tiered schedule gets rewritten by a few inches of frozen water.

The subtext is a gentle rebuke to how often “democracy” gets used as a synonym for fairness. A snowstorm is equalizing, sure, but it’s also indiscriminate. The same blanket that makes Instagram pretty also turns sidewalks into liability and heat into a budget item. Equality here isn’t justice; it’s uniform exposure. That tension gives the quote its bite: it flatters our desire for common ground while reminding us that shared conditions can still hit people unevenly. The person with a garage, a stable job, and paid leave experiences “democratic” snow as cozy inconvenience; the person who can’t miss a shift experiences it as risk.

Contextually, it reads like a line born from urban winter life: a moment when the city’s hierarchies briefly look silly, then quickly reassert themselves through who can stay home and who must dig out. The quote works because it’s both true and not quite comforting.