In the face of divisive labels and accusations of privilege, finding inner strength and self-worth can be a challenge. The Hayek Group, a local 501c3 non-profit dedicated to promoting financial freedom and education, delves into this complex terrain in their latest blog post. Drawing parallels from the world of economics, they explore how the narratives we tell ourselves about our lives can shape our reality, much like incentives shape behavior in a marketplace. Just as flawed systems can create perverse incentives, so too can societal narratives foster self-denigration and hinder personal growth.
By Charles Cohn
Inclined to at least mentally defend yourself when called a name? Maybe there’s a better Response. Name calling of various types has become de rigueur by those on the left of those they wish to denigrate. Recently, I’ve been dealing with “privileged old white male!” I have been successful in my life. However, there is no way I was in any way economically privileged. I received no special privilege for being the least manly of men, or from being white that I could see. I don’t want to debate this though. I want to make a point that I’ve discovered for myself.
When someone refers to me as having been privileged, I find it quite natural to mentally respond, “No. I was not privileged,” and then to begin to rehearse everything in my memory that affirms to me that I was not. This includes things like having survived being a poor student in my public-school education, having as a boy been un-athletic, pudgy, and wearing thick glasses, being discriminated against for being short, and on and on. The human mind can spend endless hours on this sort of thing. The result of such a session one might imagine to be a real sense of pride at having overcome all these things. But that’s the lie. This will not make you proud, and that it’s by design.
If you call me privileged and I insist to myself for days after that I was really underprivileged, then I’ve allowed you to get inside my head and gotten me to denigrate myself. I tell myself I guess I was really the victim of some really bad stuff, and it must only be because of breaks that came to me for reasons that my adversary declare are evidences of privilege that I must have barely made it. Suddenly, I am relating to victims, to all the people who may not have gotten the one break I’m told I got.
I rebel against this thinking. My response is, YES! I AM privileged! I was blessed first by a God who has been present with me throughout my life and I’ve known it. I had parents who struggled, but who advocated for my productivity and success, who loved me and nurtured me, and who I loved. I was born into and raised in this country. These were my privileges. Both my relationship with my God and with my parents molded my integrity. That integrity, together with knowing that I am always loved and cared for and about, has done more than anything else to have made me into the principled and caring man I am, and have caused so many others to love me.
So, call me privileged if that makes you feel better about yourself, but, I’m not going to disagree. I have lived a life of outstanding privilege, and that I am indeed very proud of!
