Evolution of Equality: The Narrative of Liberalisation

Narratives or myths play an important role in legitimizing knowledge and creating a sense of meaning to our lives. This article seeks to analyse the narrative of equality. I have examined the ideas of Yuval Noah Harari, the author of the book ‘21 Lessons from the 21st century’.

Firstly, the article aims to summarize Harari’s take on the narrative of equality. It traces the history of the narrative of equality and speculates how the narrative would evolve in the future. Subsequently, the author gives her own interpretation of Harari’s ideas. The article goes on to examine whether the evolution of a narrative is dependent on the rise and fall of other narratives. She seeks to analyse whether the narrative of liberalisation has had an impact on the evolution of equality as a narrative. Lastly, the article also explores equality with reference to the present-day context.