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WinningTheLottery 8 - 06 Feb 2009 - Main.LaurenRosenberg
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Today, in the midst of the broader discussion of the Arnold reading, Professor Moglen talked about “winning the lottery”. I’ve thought about this frequently – that the place where I am today, and indeed most of the places I’ve gone in my life, were predetermined by the time and place where I was born. Obviously there have been choices made along the way, but I’m not interested in addressing how frequently these choices were actually conscious decisions or to what extent a conscious decision can even be reached. Rather, I’d like to address the issues that arise for me when I presume that my privileged position in life is largely due to random chance. | | | Personally, I remember the very first moment I felt it: It was in 1991, after the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, when I first went to visit my father in Poland. I looked around at what I then thought was poverty and instantly realized the randomness of my own privilege, having grown up in Sweden, a two-hour flight away. Since then, I have felt an obligation to give at least as much as I take from "the world." But does this mean that absent that early exposure I would not react the way I do today in the face of injustice?
-- AnjaHavedal? - 06 Feb 2009 | |
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> | I agree with much of what has been said regarding the lottery of birth. John Rawls has a very insightful essay on this topic in A Theory of Justice. Rawls writes, “[It] is neither just nor unjust…that persons are born into society in some particular position. These are simply natural facts. Justice stems from the way that institutions deal with these facts.” Yet, I believe that it is not only a matter for institutions; it is also a matter for individuals. So if you accept that we are the privileged lottery winners, what does this mean for our actions and our careers?
First, I believe one should take as much benefit as possible from the privileges given, specifically your education. If we think about how many people are not given the privilege of any formal education, let alone graduate school, it will make us realize that we should get the most out of each day in class and out of our careers.
Second, I believe one should try to better the inequalities that are present in our society. I don’t think that means that everyone should necessarily work at a non-profit organization, but I do think that means one should make sure that work has a socially beneficial effect. There are lots of ways that our careers can be socially beneficial and if we work with Professor Moglen and each other, we can start to discuss how to achieve this.
Lastly, I wanted to address a lot of what has been said regarding the difficulty in thinking about this arbitrariness of position. It seems to me that it goes back to fear. It is very uncomfortable to think about how millions of people in developing nations without clean drinking water are no different than us. These fears tend to shut down our brains to avoid thinking about the situation. But when we don’t think about it, we can’t do anything about it. So if we can learn to accept the arbitrariness of birth and the fear that maybe we don’t “deserve” the privileges we have been given, then we can start to use these privileges to benefit society.
-- LaurenRosenberg - 06 Feb 2009 | | | |
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| Revision 8 | r8 - 06 Feb 2009 - 20:52:52 - LaurenRosenberg |
| Revision 7 | r7 - 06 Feb 2009 - 17:19:35 - AnjaHavedal? |
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