37. The Logic of Sameness

Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world

Florida’s authoritarian laws are leading schools to empty their library shelves of possibly offending books. We dip into Karen Stenner’s definition of authoritarianism—being uncomfortable with differences—and find a tendency toward it stretching all the way back, in Western history, to the Roman Empire. But authoritarianism is fundamentally at odds with democracy, and with nature. For, as Darwin said, evolution brings forth “endless forms most beautiful.” Just as in the rest of nature, human societies thrive not by suppressing differences but by welcoming them.

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