Veil of Ignorance

John Rawls’s Veil of Ignorance presents an interesting and unrealistic scenario. Would we treat people the same way if we all existed at an equal state free of labels and classifications such as race, gender and titles? It is easy to quickly resound yes, but how can one imagine such a world? Our world is inherent with differences---night and day, hot and cold, rain and sun, female and male, rich and poor, religious and nonreligious, republican and democrat…the list is endless.

For argument’s sake let’s pretend that this world of equality was possible. How would an event such as a political election play out? Right now media outlets have flooded us with news about the upcoming presidential election. The end goal of this is that someone will break free from the pack and stand out among the rest, be different. In Rawls’s society this kind of competition would not happen. Since everyone is equal, there would not be individuals competing to procure an office that places them at higher authority than others.

However, maybe there still are elections and politicians did not participate with labels such as party affiliations. Maybe people would vote differently because they did not see a label, but only the individual.