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On being born with privilege

Posted by davidmcnab 8 years, 3 months ago to Philosophy
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Earlier today, I saw a feminist posting on social media about the "privilege inherent in being white, straight and male". It had an undertone of expectation that anyone in that position should feel guilty and hold themselves back in favour of those denied that privilege.

Anyway, this was my reply:

To anyone with privilege of any kind be it artistic genius, or wealthy birth, or athletic capability, or political connections, or dominant gender/sexuality/ethnicity, I say this:

Do not under any circumstances allow yourself to indulge (or others to manipulating you into indulging) in that toxic infectious emotion called 'guilt', or feel you have to hold yourself back in any way, or for anybody.

Take everything great you have been given, and use it to its utmost to be all you can be. Through your productive accomplishment, you inspire others, and even lighten their load.

Audit all the helpful and unhelpful cards you have been dealt. Strategise your life to maximise the benefit of your helpful cards, and minimise the adverse impact of your unhelpful ones, and where possible, even convert the unhelpful ones into helpful ones.

And be mindful that the true measure of a person is not what cards they have been dealt, but how they play them.

I don't identify as Christian, but that passage on 'charity' in Corinthians offers much guidance, especially if you substitute the words 'open heart' and/or 'empathy' for the word 'charity' (which today has taken on a connotation of moral obligation to give to those less fortunate).


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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    And I just put what it was in the wrong space so now I shall rewrite...

    Altruism is not the proper word nor wrong if it is arrived at objectively and by our own free will. i'm thinking of rands definition of greed...that which we want the most will only come if we give the most and give with the expectation of both pleasing the recipient but of receiving same from the recipient..

    It is not 'giving back' that most odious of phrases. it is an expression of the joy of having free will.and expecting even more besides a feel good red bull jolt that soon dies and requires two more...

    That is how I apologize as for the proper spot that is no longer among the living i sentenced it to death by ignoring.
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  • Posted by MaxCasey 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Emotions are tools of measure. They tell you how you are judging something, be it good, or bad on a scale. They don't however tell you whether your value judgement is rational. This is my point concerning how people who lament feeling like whites are "privileged". As for a serious internal contradiction, not necessarily. You may feel negative about something, but logically not be entitled to act negatively as a result. For example, you find your wife in bed with another dude. You might feel any number of negative emotions directing you to can of whoopass, however, logically, you have no right to take forceful retribution or vengeance. I'm not sure that a fully self-actualized individual would be without negative emotions at the hands of a personal betrayal of trust, nor am I sure he/she should be.
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  • Posted by $ blarman 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Excellent points. I used privilege quite loosely here because you are correct in that privilege assumes a grant of power.
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  • Posted by 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The word 'privilege' is worrying, generally speaking. As distinct from 'rights' (which are inherent to a person, group or situation and can neither be granted nor revoked), privilege by definition can be easily snatched away. This makes concepts like 'white hetero male privilege' seem even more ludicrous.
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  • Posted by 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I think both matter. Serious discrepancy between emotion an intellect is a red flag signifying serious internal contradiction with potentially deadly ramifications. Either the intellect is resting on one or more false or mutually contradictory axioms, or the emotions are based on premises detrimental to full individual self-actualisation, or both.
    Emotions, as Ayn Rand says, are fast approximators. In the anatomy of the human heart, there is a matrix of interconnected nerve cells, constituting a brain in and of itself. Emotions such as anxiety can deliver rapid and accurate warnings of internal contradiction.
    That said, however, emotions can be just as vulnerable as intellect regarding their ability to produce errors, as a result of false premises.

    Example: Feeling fear when looking to start your own business, versus feeling happiness taking a secure but moderately paid job in a large company. This emotion can be based on family conditioning around work and money. Others would feel emotions of joy and freedom starting their own business, versus feeling suffocated and depressed taking the secure job.
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  • Posted by $ jlc 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It was a remark here in the Gulch that produced the AHA moment for me: Someone pointed out that if you exchanged $100 for a warm wool coat, your overall worth had not changed (and now you were warmer).

    So if you used a million or so dollars to buy a big ranch and add secure gates, solar power, and a well, you have purchased a degree of security against some forms of mischance. You might also be able to sell said ranch for more than its cost + improvements, thus earning money by making yourself more secure. (Repeat.)

    Jan
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Excellent now we have an alternative to banks and mattresses and t - bills all a form of securing the money with the least amount of risk....

    I dote on my dotage....and just acquired a new bit of stuff (dinghy) for the boat... :-)
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  • Posted by $ jlc 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Ha, some 'dotage'!

    But this began with your question of 'what about lottery winners'. I would not want to put the money in a bank, but I don't want to keep it in a mattress either. I am not nautically accomplished, so boats and ships are not where I would go - but land is.

    I would hire a property management company.

    Jan
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  • Posted by $ blarman 8 years, 3 months ago
    Here are a few of the privileges I'm glad I have:

    1. The privilege of life. I live.
    2. The privilege of thought. Life is nothing without thought.
    3. The privilege to exercise thought or work. Life without the freedom to express my thought is not a privilege.
    4. The privilege to see my work's value traded to others without government interference.
    5. The privilege to share my ideas with others.

    Here are a few of the privileges I don't have:

    1. The privilege of depriving others of their wealth by coercion.
    2. The privilege of telling others they must believe what I do.
    3. The privilege of restricting what others can say or believe.
    4. The privilege of restricting or controlling how another person can offer the value of their work to another.
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  • Posted by MaxCasey 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Holy Shit... there is a special place in hell (if there exists one) for people who perpetrate that type of fraud.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    As stated by Francisco d'Anconia: "Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth – the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him. But you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his money? Do not envy a worthless heir; his wealth is not yours and you would have done no better with it. Do not think that it should have been distributed among you, loading the world with fifty parasites instead of one would not bring back the dead virtue which was the fortune. Money is a living power that dies without its root. Money will not serve that mind that cannot match it. Is this the reason why you call it evil?"
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Well I was dumb enought to believe the government when it came to earned benefits of retirement. They reneged on the housing loan certificate, they reneged on COLA, they reneged on GI Bill. they reneged on medical for life. I have to say they didn't renege on space available on air force planes but then I haven't tried to use that benefit for about ten years.

    Nothing more renegable than than a veteran.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    As I recall there was no such thing as student loans when I needed them ...and when I finished 24 years in the military and tried to use my Vietnam GI BIll was told tough shit we cancelled that..

    THAT goes in the Democrats column of who to blame squarely. They hate veterans...and I despise them....

    I paid blood and they sat on their fat asses. pun intended.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Maybe they are just being disciminating....? Choose words carefully...Just because others haven't a clue what they mean doesn't sentence the rest of us to illiteracy. good post.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Then no problem for me. By the time it's my turn to be one in ten executed I'll be dust in the wind anyway...or sprinkled on the water....whatever the death benefit from the government comes to..I have set nothing aside to pay their bills and it's just another benefit they will not doubt try to renege on ....

    not my worry at that point.
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  • Posted by 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Welcome to the era of electronic Freudian slips. Small-screen keyboards which give rise to typing errors, but errors which often have their own deeper accuracy.

    The single white straight Christian male is certainly being 'decimated' at the moment. :/
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    True...I just have a major distrust of taking too many hits on the buying power and too many hits as a property ha ha owner. The idea of paying for the right to pay taxes and assume all liabilities leaves me cold as does the poor business climate and even poorer government climate.

    At my age I'm not into property management considering the length of time and cost to drive out the deadbeats. A group favored by Judges...

    It's not my cup of tea nor do I see any reasonable stoppage on trends nor any real hope of a recovery - just more of the same.

    I'd rather live in a warm (for my old bones) and safe (as compared to the USA) country and enjoy my dotage.
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  • Posted by $ jlc 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    People need places to live. My parents said that, during the Depression, the only folks who had income were people who could rent out apartments or rooms. If you have a ton of money, you do not have to take Fannie may into the process - just buy a block of nice apartments outright.

    Since you were discussing Tbills (above)...I don't think apartment buildings is beyond the range of feasibility.

    Jan
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  • Posted by johnpe1 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    my good fortune was centered around good, solid and
    "comfortable" parenting -- training and health care --
    and opportunities to read, study and play on my own.
    I had my lawn service, and still have the schwinn
    ten-speed downstairs which I bought with some of
    the profits. . taught me capitalism, work ethic, the
    value of reputation. . the inheritance factor provided
    about half of this house. . it's a good-un. -- j
    .
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    decimated against....translated for those not conversant with the Queen's English.

    decimate - to kill one tenth. Do it ten times it reduces the group in question 100 - 90 - 81 - 72 - 66 - 57 - 51 - 45 - 40 and one more 36.
    assuming no replacements.

    On the other hand if you are into PC it could mean almost anything..

    Good post jetmec.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't we just go through a housing bubble crash just a few ears ago AND didn't we just hear that Fannie Mae is going to do the exact same thing all over again. I would hardly invest money in purchasing the right to pay rent as worth while especially in the USA

    Now a couple of new boats....in which to live and which provide an escape mechanism is much more my style

    But after 'giving back half then 39% or whatever I'm more in favor of a Bobby and Sue investment.

    Go on...take the money and run....

    But other than t bills oddly enough no way I'd invest in an economy heading for another big crash.
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  • Posted by $ jlc 8 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    There are other answers:

    #1. Buy stuff. Land. Houses. Rental properties. If you buy $6M worth of 'stuff that appreciates' or 'stuff that will give you an income over the next years' then you have something that can actually earn money.

    #2. Spend your money on something you regard as worthwhile: De-extincting mammoths or the Thylacine; commercialization of space; longevity research.

    You can do both, of course: You need about $3M to keep you in independent luxury (invested in real estate); then put the rest into something intersting.

    Jan
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