ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 takes a deep dive into the egalitarian imagination, which is defined by concerns with economic inequality, socialism, unfair bargaining, and abuse of privileges associated with control and access to property. As with the root narratives that support security and liberty, egalitarian root narratives are defined by their protagonist function: things that create unfair competition for the People. The injustice that violates equality of condition is unfair competition. Egalitarian stories are predicated on the competitive struggle for scarce resources, but recognize that those who garner advantages in these struggles at one stage in the game become privileged in later phases. The victim/hero of these abuses are the People, who are defined against an elite who abuse their positions. What differentiates the three egalitarian root narratives is who is cast as the cheating antagonist. In the Reciprocity narrative, the antagonists are economic elites who use their bargaining power to game the system. In the Nation narrative, the antagonists are foreigners who seek to outpace and replace the People. In the Accountability narrative, the antagonists are members of the government who abuse their positions of authority to enrich themselves. The first version produces socialism and the other two produce different forms of populism.
