TO SAY YOU’RE MY EQUAL IS AN INSULT.

TO SAY YOU’RE MY EQUAL IS AN INSULT. In today’s Financial Times, Quentin Peel has a retrospective look at Jacques Chirac. Peel says, “He [Chirac] expected to be treated with respect, given the decades of his involvement at the top. When he was merely treated as an equal, he would quickly take offense.” Americans frequently assume that treating somebody as an equal must be considered respect. There are an awful lot of hierarchies out there, in America as well as in Europe. To be treated as an equal by somebody that you outrank can generate a surprising rage.