Origins of Equality: Magna Carta

Mapping Out Our Journey Toward Universal Human Equality

This is the first part of a series where I explore different aspects, events, and ingredients necessary for the concept of universal human equality. Not being the normal expectation throughout the majority of human history, I wanted to understand where the concept came from and how it has come to be “self-evident.” As we move further away from the roots of these concepts, both conceptually and in time, my fear is that we lose the ability to articulate why the concept of equality is important and what it is specifically that is equal among us, thus losing the ability to defend it from “new” ideas that threaten those foundations.

Today, I start with one ingredient in the development of our current concepts of equality: Magna Carta.

Upon taking a trip to Runnymede, which is the first spot of green southwest of London, you may be surprised to find an incredibly quaint grassy field with little more than a few cottages and a boat house on the River Thames. Today, what is now little more…