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Equal opportunity is a clever misnomer. It mearly means that society does not actively block an individuals progress.
Opportunities are in a sense resources, which are unfortunately finite. There is only so much money, so much time, so much love, etc. When society is allocating opportunties to individuals, it is more or less, investing in those individuals. When investing, the point is to maximize the return. Thus those individuals who have the greatest chance of success recieve the greatest share of opportunties.
Lets use the analogy of a bank loan officer. Every day he has appointments with people applying for loans. The bank only has a finite amount of money to loan out. So he has no choice but to lend the money to those peolpe he thinks have the greatest chance of being able to repay the loan. It doesn't make him feel warm and fuzzy inside to turn people down, but if he didn't turn them down the bank would have lent out money to people who can't repay their loans. Thus the bank would be decapitalized and be unable to loan money to anyone.
Like all human endevours, the way society manages the opportunities it provides is guided by emotion and fraught with mistakes. People with talent or ability don't always get a chance, and people without ability or talent get too many chances. It may not be fair, but it allows society to function.
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"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."
--H.L. Mencken
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