What Privilege?

By Phil Erwin

Two manufactured “memes” (media-driven pseudo-truths) may come to dominate this election season because the “Progressive” Left finds them so useful:

• “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) arose from social unrest triggered by sensationalized, deliberately incendiary media coverage of deaths such as Michael Brown in Ferguson and Freddie Grey in Baltimore – coverage which was so flawed as to approach fraudulent, but which the BLM crowd nevertheless claims to “prove” that Black Americans are dying because Blacks are being targeted by police.
• “White Privilege” is a concept born in Universities, where ultra-Liberal Professors have brainwashed naive students into believing that historical game-fixing by Caucasians still, after decades of Affirmative Action, prevents non-Caucasians from succeeding in Life.

These movements are driven by a Progressive Protest Machine. The false “memes” are cooked up by radical Leftists and promulgated on Web sites and in University classrooms, using techniques espoused by professional rabble-rouser Saul Alinsky (whom Hillary Clinton and Chris Matthews agreed was “Our [Progressives’] Hero! ” )   Flyers are distributed, social media is flooded, protests are announced, and paid troublemakers are brought in to ensure the protests are covered in the media.

This is how the proponents make themselves seem both legitimate, and important. Alinsky’s methods persist because they work – they allow tiny minorities to foment political change by browbeating, demeaning, intimidating and bamboozling the majority into silent acceptance of utter nonsense.

And there are glaringly illogical inconsistencies in the messages these particular movements espouse:

• BLM strictly avoids conceding that Black Lives matter because all human lives matter. Indeed, Democrat candidates were excoriated for suggesting it. Yet, the unavoidable implication is that Black Lives matter but other Lives do not – a fundamentally racist argument that invokes precisely the very social ill that has historically weighed heavily against Blacks. Why should non-Blacks accept such blatant reverse-racism?
• “White Privilege” is useless to explain social misalignments. It just doesn’t fit reality. Consider: Asians are an extraordinarily successful “race” as Americans. Are Asians “White”? Did they have “privilege” to propel them when they first arrived in America? No. So, why then do they succeed without White Privilege, if that’s the reason that Blacks can’t succeed? Why do Black-American successes such as Dr. Ben Carson, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, Oprah Winfrey – Barack Obama – arise without “privilege”? And why, if Whites are all fundamentally “privileged,” are so many of them now struggling, disillusioned, frustrated and ready to vote for almost anybody who will really change things in Washington? Whence the TEA Party, if all those Partiers were already enjoying government-sanctioned privilege?

We can do better than to argue national policy on the basis of flawed, deliberately fraudulent, obviously wrong notions.

So, what “privileges” do actually bolster the financial and personal successes of individuals in varying degrees, and lead to unequal outcomes?

•  Genetic Privilege: Good-looking people are more likely to succeed in Life, and the children of pretty people tend to inherit that benefit. If you have pretty parents, you have a head start.
• Smart Privilege: Smarter is generally better for succeeding, and smart people generally have smart kids. It’s no guarantee, but what is?
• Talent Privilege: The Jackson Five were good, but it was Michael’s inherent artistic genius that delivered him Superstar status.
• Money Privilege: If your parents are loaded, you have a much better chance of winding up rich. Just ask Donald Trump. Daddy’s money can make a huge difference!!! Since historically more Caucasians have attained wealth, this particular form of privilege is more racially imbalanced. But in the world of Today, that is neither unfair, nor racist. It is simply an historical fact – one that Affirmative Action was deliberately implemented to undo.
• Family Privilege: Related to Money Privilege, and the basis for the notion of “Ivy League” or “The Best” schools.   If your Daddy is “connected,” you’re kind of “connected” right out of the gate. But this is also true in the Mafia, in criminal gangs, and in Politics the world over. It’s not a “White” thing; it’s a Human thing.
• Timing Privilege: Some success is at least partly luck-of-the-draw. You think Mick Jagger could have made it big as a singer at any time in history before the 1960’s?

And then there’s that greatest “privilege” of all: American Privilege.   It’s such an obvious boost to potential fortunes that parents the world over dream of raising their families here, precisely because it’s the world’s most privileged place. Yet, Progressives degenerate the very privilege that provides them freedom to lament their own privileges!

Would they eliminate entirely the privilege America represents?

The fabled “Golden Goose” illustrates the folly of destroying lasting prosperity for momentary gain. Liberals/Progressives seem Hell-bent on killing the American goose so that no one will ever again have access to those golden eggs. They seek ultimately to eliminate unequal successes for individuals by eliminating all possibility that anyone gets a head-start in Life.

Hmmm. That’s reminiscent of “Marxist Communism.” How’d that work out for the Soviet Union?

“White Privilege” is a manufactured mirage. People all start at different points in the Life-race; and they all run that race with different capabilities, different desires, different energies. It is only in America that the starting point does not, by itself, determine individual outcomes.

And that is what makes America truly “exceptional.”

We must not sacrifice the golden American goose on the altar of some mythical, Politically-Correct “equality.”

_________________________________

Phil Erwin is an author, IT administrator and registered Independent living in Newbury Park. He sometimes wishes he could support Democrat ideals, but he has a visceral hatred for Lies and Damn Lies, and is none too fond of Statistics. If his writing depresses you, he recommends you visit Chip Bok’s site for a more lighthearted perspective.

Get Citizensjournal.us Headlines free  SUBSCRIPTION. Keep us publishing – DONATE