Line drawing in black ink on white background of two gooseneck barnacles with eyes, looking lovingly at each other.

Confusing cake and sheep

Some people confuse equality with lack of diversity, and argue that a society where we all were the same would be very boring.

I think that argument is an excuse to dominate others. If the people who use such arguments have power, it serves the purpose of keeping them in power. If they don’t have power they at least hope to have it one day so that they too can dominate others. 

Luckily a society of clones is impossible. However, the lack of equality ends up imposing something very similar. Because the people in power have the means to impose their aesthetic, their point of view and their way of doing things. And we all end up in a parcial, homogenous, degrading, conformist and uninteresting monoculture soup.

When I first studied composition in the design school, the first compositional structure that I learned was the symmetrical. To compose an image symmetrically makes it very stable, perhaps too stable, even static. The less symmetrical the composition the more dynamic it will be, but also more unstable.

The key to good composition is to know how to create dynamism without losing balance. In order to achieve that, form and colour need to be distributed in a way in which they complement each other, establishing a visual hierarchy that serves the purpose of the composition.

Red is not better than blue. Or a square better than a circle. But if the picture is of a strawberry, perhaps red will make it look more edible, while blue might make it look more magical. The strawberries in a dream can be blue, but the ones in a supermarket probably shouldn’t. 

Squares roll worse than circles, but they are better to build a wall. Sometimes we need a wall and sometimes a wheel. To say that a wall is more valuable than a wheel is imprudent. 

That is what I mean with equality. We each have our value, and circumstances and purposes will determine how we should place each other so that we all win. So when I hear somebody attack equality I run for cover. Because I know that what they are really saying is that they are coming to impose their truth, because they don’t believe in my value as a person, nor in my difference, nor in my freedom.