1. INTRODUCTION: THE RELIGIOUS FOUNDATION OF SOCIALISM

The ideal of equality has, at the end of this millennium, undergone deep commotions of a cultural and political nature, which have left it without a foundation. So-called Modernity, that is to say, the crisis of modern reason, on the one hand, and the fall of the wall of Berlin and the failure of the main historical attempt of “real socialism”, on the other, seem to have left the champions of equality in a situation of profound confusion.

At the outset, common sense tells us that equality is a value that cannot be renounced if we are to organise the living together of human beings in a just way. But historical happenings and our daily experience of what we call “human nature” (the capacity of man for egoism, injustice and abuse of our neighbour) leave us perplexed before the possibility of whether this ideal can ever be achieved.

Should we carry on aspiring to build up a society on a footing of equality or is it better that we should succumb to realism and renounce this “useless utopia”?