Luck of the Draw
Given the proportion of our species living in poverty
Relative to that which lives comfortably
Given the sheer scale of deprivation across the globe
It was as likely, if not more so
That I would be born in a place
Where I would go through life
Wallowing in my own faecal matter
In a shack constructed from waste metal or cardboard
Than be born where I was
And grow up in the comfortable way that I have
I am lucky
I am lucky to have access to high-quality infrastructure
The collective underpinning of individual productivity
I am lucky to live in a place without extreme weather events
To have been born into a family which values education
With parents who have had stability in their employment
Not loaded, but never having to go without
Who balance borrowing, saving and spending
In a fairly sensible manner
I have never had to worry about food
I have time for recreation
Hell, I am sitting here, in an airport
Waiting for a flight, writing a bunch of crap on the internet
Surrounded by relatively prosperous families and individuals
Who are understandably anxious to make the most of their leisure time
While billions of people either go hungry
Live in constant fear of arbitrary violence
Work themselves to death for a pittance
Or all of the above
Through no fault of my own
And, unlike the majority of the population of this planet
I have grown up under more or less the right conditions
For a human being to prosper
I don’t have harrowing debts
And I don’t have a criminal record
I have never seen a firearm being used to commit violence
Nor have I been scarred
By the loss of a family member to conflict
But this is only because I was born where and when I was
Right now, I am wearing warm clothes
Likely made by people who work under near-slave conditions
I’ve used more clean water to mop my bathroom floor
Than some infants get a chance to drink before they die
I’ve eaten more calories today
Than many people around the world eat in a month
I am very, very lucky
But I deserve little, if any, in the way of credit for my position
I deserve no credit for staying out of trouble
Because it is what I was taught to do
I deserve no credit for doing well in school
Because it is what I was taught to do
I have indeed made bad decisions, same as everybody else
But I would like to think
That many of the decisions I make strike the right balance
Of benefit to myself and benefit to others
Yet again, though, my ability to do this is a product of circumstance
Not solely, of course
But, to a significant degree
I am who I am because of my education
At school and at university
At home and among my peers
How could I take credit for working hard
When I likely would not do so had I not been taught to?
How can I take credit for thinking in the long-term
When I likely would not have done so
Had I not been so expediently and repeatedly made aware
Of the advantages associated with delaying gratification?
If I had been born elsewhere
My life could have been a constant struggle
Like it is for so many people, even in rich countries
But how could my fictitious parents in this case be to blame
For giving me a difficult, if fictitious, life
When they would likely have been victims of the same upbringing
That this other me would then inherit?
Yes, I make my own decisions
Yes, I can make any choice I want at any time
But the way that I think about these choices
The weight that I attach to the relative advantages
Of the variety of opportunities that I have been presented with
Is as much a product of my circumstances
As it is of my free will
So much of the world is open to me
But this is because the resources that I have had
And continue to have at my disposal
The economic and social capital
Limited though they may be
They still put me at an unfair advantage over the majority of the world
Even over the majority of people in this, an affluent nation
Where not everybody has been as lucky as me
Criminonymous
Photo by Criminonymous
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1
June 3, 2012 at 13:12 -
Thank you for this. It is brilliant. I agree with its every sentiment.
I was born in 1958. I was telling a friend recently that despite personal problems and health issues (who doesn’t have them?), I feel blessed.
We have lived through the most amazing time in human history, with its enormous technological advances and societal changes (for both better and worse) and an explosion of culture.
We are truly a fortunate generation and I am thankful for that.
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June 3, 2012 at 21:15 -
Well good for you! Frankly I don’t give a damn about 3rd world peasants! But of course they turn up as asylums, pregnant birds about to drop a sprog ,
And sponge off the NHS for years, vow their kids have “special needs” ! That means the parents cant be deported cos they can’t be be separated fro their retard kids
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June 3, 2012 at 13:52 -
So, your thesis is that none of us can take any credit for the way our society works?
That nobody’s achievements are of note or contribute anything of value?
That hundreds of years of slow, careful development of our institutions, our laws, our ways of living and working and respecting each other are just…what – a co-incidence?
That it all, somehow, just “happened”?
Forgive me if I disagree.
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June 3, 2012 at 20:13 -
I read the total opposite.
We are lucky to live in a time where everything has been created to make our standard of living a lot better than our ancestors. We are lucky to live in a place where we are allowed to live comfortably. A pure accident of birth places us where we are and not in some place where we have to eak out a living. And it also places us in a time where thousands of years of development and millions of years of evolution have got us here talking on the internet whilst seperated by time and space.
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June 3, 2012 at 23:52 -
I read that too, SBML.
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8
June 3, 2012 at 15:15 -
We live in a place of comfort and relative security because our ancestors worked and fought for it, and those of us who are of a mind do their bit to contribute our share and more.
There are too many here who do not deserve this fine land, they have taken their easy lives for granted, have failed to honour the sacrifice of millions before who paved the way for this life.
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June 3, 2012 at 18:00 -
Come back, Anna, please, and put an end to this pompous drivel!
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June 3, 2012 at 20:30 -
You can’t satisfy everyone all the time. It might be more free verse than rhyming poetry, but it does seem to be getting people talking.
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June 3, 2012 at 19:18 -
Please can we have some quality control back in place here to stop posts like this poetic (sic) drivel wasting everybody’s time?
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June 3, 2012 at 20:15 -
“Waiting for a flight, writing a bunch of crap on the internet”……when the author self-describes his/her content thus, it would be foolish to continue reading it.
But I agree these tedious attempts at “prose” do not enhance the site.
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June 3, 2012 at 20:46 -
If I may promote another site briefly, along with La Raccoon, orphans of liberty, leggy, Mr Puddlecote and half a dozen others, I read Counting Cats in Zanzibar. Rather than making commentary, I offered to do a few posts and they very kindly accepted.
Cascadian, you are a smart man/woman (sorry I don’t know), speak to Miss Raccoon, SBML etc and if they agree, write some posts. You will have me as a regular reader and several others I fancy.
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June 4, 2012 at 18:32 -
SAoT, thank you for the unsolicited boost to my ego, do you think that is wise?
I take your point, and will consider your suggestion. And thank you for the referal to Counting Cats in Zanzibar which was unknown to me, Orphans of Liberty I was already aware of.
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June 3, 2012 at 19:46 -
According to some, we all crawled out of the same cave. SOME of us went on to build cultures, societys, nations. Aachen, Notre Damme, Athens, Rome. Some of us developed science, and engineering.
Others, however, chose to sit under a tree, with the occassional wander to shit in their own drinking water, and otherwise wait for US to invent the god of the big white food truck, known as UN.
Should I feel guilty?
Like FUCK I should.
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June 3, 2012 at 22:11 -
So, we can expect some real intellectual gems from the critics, can we?
Goody, I do love it when people put their money where their mouths are.-
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June 4, 2012 at 07:40 -
From some, possibly yes, from others certainly no.
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June 4, 2012 at 00:54 -
So it is all luck then and so by your definition ‘unfair’!
Be patient you may yet get a chance to wallow in your own filth in one of the fine NHS hospitals as you get older.
Or if you say something wrong you may enjoy her majesty’s pleasure.
All assuming that western civilisation holds together. -
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June 4, 2012 at 22:15 -
Hyperbole alert.
I’ve eaten more calories today
Than many people around the world eat in a monthThen you, or they, are dead. Starvation calorie intake is what? About 800 kilo-calories per day? Lets be nice to you and take a modal February. That’s works out at about a Big Mac Meal every hour – medium chips, medium arbitrary sugar-water. Tough day. No sleep. Toilet breaks, obviously.
{ 26 comments }