In 1835, almost 200 years ago as part of his play Paracelsus, Robert Browning wrote:
Man is not man as yet,
Nor shall I deem his object served, his end
Attained, his genuine strength put fairly forth,
While only here and there a star dispels
The darkness. Here and there a towering mind
O’erlooks its prostrate fellows: when the host
Is out at once to the despair of night,
When all mankind alike is perfected,
Equal and full-blown powers – then, not till then,
I say, begins man’s general infancy.
“This quote is a vision for what human beings can be. It’s an expression of an egalitarianism, of the recognition that we really, in the deepest sense, are all equal despite apparent differences in abilities and in wealth and in status. Deep down we will some day be equal in full blown powers and then our general infancy will begin. We’re not human yet. We’re basically a bunch of predatory animals and always have been, Browning is saying. But when we realize our equality with others, then we will become fully human. Then man will be man. The first line of the poem says the current situation is the opposite, man is not man as yet. And until we achieve and recognize our deep equality, we won’t have grown beyond our general infancy. This quote connected with my intuition of equal dignity for all beings and that’s why I’ve used it as a quote to launch this book, The Theory of Everybody.”
Robert Fuller, Ph.D. Educator and leader of the Dignity Movement,
author of Dignity for All: How to Create a World without Rankism
and The Theory of Everybody
