...Privileged?

Change is inevitable and that’s a reality no matter what your living situation is. And if all things point to one conclusion it’s that change is difficult for everyone, but we all have the power to accept our separate realities. Consensus is valid only to the extent to which each individual asserts his own relation to the extent of the facts and retains his individuality (49). Being in a privileged home doesn’t make you impervious or irrelevant to the issues of the world, but rather allows more time to stop and reflect on such issues and find ways to help the situation. Difficult living conditions don’t entitle you to having full knowledge of your situation, because you aren’t given that amount of time to reflect. The point that this book was trying to make is that as a society we are creators. We create everything that there is in the world: wars, peace, news, entertainment, emotions and everything else that leads to the way the social world works today. It’s through these conditions that social classes began as well as many of the world’s problems. To say that status changes any of that, you would have to neglect the fact that status was born from these principles of social behavior. We are creators, because as a race we have a mentality in which we want commodities that we may otherwise not possess- technology is the best proof of that. Despite being creators of so much, I believe that we will never be able to harness those efforts, because as a race we are also ambitious. That ambition leads some people to want more of a resource than they actually need, and that will lead others to lack resources to acquire what they need. As for my living conditions, they are very similar to Kahane’s but I don’t feel like my opinions would be invalid because of that. To attempt imitating a lifestyle that is less privilege than my own would be like shooting myself in the leg to prove that a bullet hurts.