Wang Hui's short book What is Equality? asks us that very question, or more specifically, what if the crisis that political institutions are facing was first a crisis in the model of equality that they are applying? Born out of a European tradition that has always considered the world according to humans, and only under the guise of goods that could be discussed, exchanged and com- modified, our understanding of equality fails to acknowledge the diversity of realities, experiences and even beings in the world. In order to grasp the complexities of our societies, entangled in a growing web of people and things, we need to learn new ways of putting the ‘equal’ sign between them – ways that don’t posit humans as the alpha and omega of politics. It is only by reaching a form of equality of all things, respecting diversity without trying to unify, that we will be able to render justice to all beings – and to rebuild the institutions that are supposed to shelter and nurture them.
