The Problem with Privilege

There is a strong narrative today of privilege being something to be ashamed of. Something to regret. Something to eschew and push away. I've always taken issue with this idea, but couldn't succinctly articulate why. Then an answer hit me.

Harrison Bergeron.

If you're not familiar with it, I'd recommend reading or watching it. It's an excellent dystopian story written by Kurt Vonnegut that imagines a future in which all are equal. Literally. No one is allowed to be better or prettier or smarter than anyone else (except the government, of course; they still need to be smart enough to govern). If you happen to be naturally smart and are married to someone naturally ... not, you're equipped with something that distracts you every 15 seconds so you can't keep a coherent train of thought. If you're naturally a good dancer, you're strapped with weights when you dance, so you can't leap or pirouette gracefully; you don't want to be better than the clumsy person also dancing.

Harrison Bergeron, the title character, is naturally gifted intellectually and at dancing. His dad is brilliant, but has a device that emits a shrill high pitch preventing him from keeping his train of thought so he's not smarter than Harrison's mom. The story eventually ends in tragedy; Harrison either kills himself or is killed (I forget which) on national TV, but his parents forget almost immediately after watching.

Privilege is not something to be ashamed of. It's a blessing to be grateful for.

Harrison Bergeron is a chilling look at what happens when we pull the "privileged" down to the "unprivileged" level. It is much, much better to pull the "unprivileged" up to the "privileged" level. It's not possible for everyone; some disabilities can only be overcome so much and some people are just unwilling to invest in themselves. However, it is much better than the alternative.

That needs to be our focus, not guilt over whatever advantages we might have over other people.

NB. The story and movie are different; the story is a short story, while the movie fleshes out the idea more and changes some things while still staying fairly true to the cautionary nature of the story. Vonnegut's short story collection Welcome to the Monkey House contains Harrison Bergeron: https://www.amazon.com/Welcome-Monkey-House-Kurt-Vonnegut-ebook/dp/B001334J0U/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1510504563&sr=1-1&keywords=harrison+bergeron+by+kurt+vonnegut&refinements=p_n_feature_browse-bin%3A618073011 No affliate link is on this.