"The class distinctions proper to a democratic society are not those of rank or money, still less, as is apt to happen when these are abandoned, of race, but of age"
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Auden suggests that a democratic society should organize its differences around age rather than around rank, wealth, or race. Democracy rests on the idea of equal citizenship; fixed hierarchies of birth or money contradict that ideal by creating permanent castes. Age, by contrast, is a universal and rotating condition. Everyone is young, then adult, then old. Distinctions tied to life stages reflect changing capacities, dependencies, and responsibilities rather than intrinsic superiority. They can be justified as developmental: children need protection and education; adults shoulder civic labor; elders hold memory and offer counsel. Such differences can structure authority and duty without denying equal dignity.
The aside about what happens when rank and money are abandoned is a warning. When societies strip away traditional class markers but still crave social stratification, they often fall back on race to draw hard lines. Race becomes a crude surrogate for status, entrenching divisions far more destructive to democratic life because they are permanent, inherited, and inescapable. The temptation to replace class with race deforms democracy into a system of exclusion rather than one of shared rule.
Age distinctions fit the democratic ethos because they invite empathy and reciprocity. Adults remember being children; the young can imagine becoming old. That temporal continuity smooths conflict into a conversation across generations rather than a standoff between permanent blocs. Institutions already acknowledge this logic through age-based thresholds for voting, office, military service, and retirement, as well as the public commitment to schooling and child welfare. These are not privileges of caste but calibrations of readiness and care.
The aphorism does not deny the risk of ageism or the reality that wealth and status still shape democratic life. It proposes a better organizing principle: let differences mark stages of growth and succession, not structures of domination. When distinctions are provisional and shared by all in turn, the promise of equality can coexist with necessary social order and the continual renewal that democracy requires.
The aside about what happens when rank and money are abandoned is a warning. When societies strip away traditional class markers but still crave social stratification, they often fall back on race to draw hard lines. Race becomes a crude surrogate for status, entrenching divisions far more destructive to democratic life because they are permanent, inherited, and inescapable. The temptation to replace class with race deforms democracy into a system of exclusion rather than one of shared rule.
Age distinctions fit the democratic ethos because they invite empathy and reciprocity. Adults remember being children; the young can imagine becoming old. That temporal continuity smooths conflict into a conversation across generations rather than a standoff between permanent blocs. Institutions already acknowledge this logic through age-based thresholds for voting, office, military service, and retirement, as well as the public commitment to schooling and child welfare. These are not privileges of caste but calibrations of readiness and care.
The aphorism does not deny the risk of ageism or the reality that wealth and status still shape democratic life. It proposes a better organizing principle: let differences mark stages of growth and succession, not structures of domination. When distinctions are provisional and shared by all in turn, the promise of equality can coexist with necessary social order and the continual renewal that democracy requires.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
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