View Full Version : My extraordinary privilege.
Today, I called off work because I was sick. I went to the doctor and he got me quickly on the mend by mid morning.
For lunch, I decided to treat myself to some Indian food -- I drove my car to a buffet, but only had one plate and a chapati. I could have had multiple plates and multiple chapatis.
In the afternoon I walked over to the grocery and bought all sorts of things -- rolls, cheese, some sparkling water, some broccoli, a few canned items, raw hides for Harlan, etc.
When I paid the cashier I did not even think about how much it cost me. She stated the amount but I was totally tuned out. I looked at the receipt later --- it was $38.
When I got home I realized just how privileged I currently am compared to people in Bangladesh, Ghana, Nepal, Honduras, etc. And my day today illustrated that profoundly.
It really hits home at times, doesn't it?
I get the same feeling whenever I thoughtfully turn on my kitchen tap. So many millions are grateful to have any water that is safe to drink.
In an article about one refugee camp, a woman was so grateful to have just one gallon of potable water per day for all her drinking, cooking and washing needs delivered at no risk to her of trying to find a safe source, no need to walk miles to get it and no risk of assault on the way. I shower using how many gallons?
It really hits home at times, doesn't it?
I get the same feeling whenever I thoughtfully turn on my kitchen tap. So many millions are grateful to have any water that is safe to drink.
In an article about one refugee camp, a woman was so grateful to have just one gallon of potable water per day for all her drinking, cooking and washing needs delivered at no risk to her of trying to find a safe source, no need to walk miles to get it and no risk of assault on the way. I shower using how many gallons?
Yes, sometimes it just clicks in my mind. Like... this is unbelievable!
And your example is so true. So true!
Reading and thinking about the refugees' situations just overwhelms me. With so many emotions, gratitude being one.
Agree with this.
One news item comes to mind: years ago, at one of the Olympics, it was said that the athletes from the 3rd world countries were astounded at how much uneaten food others from 1st world countries routinely discarded after their meals.
I work as a server in the dining room at an assisted living facility. Every day I'm amazed that so much food is uneaten and thrown away by them---these same people that lived through hard times after the depression, grew up poor, had a tough time during the war, worked hard, etc. It kills me to throw it away!
I'm always grateful to have a car and not rely on public transportation (not that there's anything like that where I live).
ApatheticNoMore
1-10-17, 2:15am
Not worrying about the $38 is not something all Americans can do of course, many have to stress it, yea disposable income is a good thing just for the stress reduction alone!
It's privileged compared to earlier times as well in terms of material comforts - to the point of excess. Those not in pain from any material poverty though are often in pain from the poverty that is rampant - time poverty, poverty of human connections (well people don't just want to stay on Maslow's bottom rung forever no matter how grateful they should be for it and they should - but .... they work many more hours than peasants in the middle ages or primitive tribes afterall, and have less human contact).
I have no interest in more time poverty, and human connection poverty, too much already, nearly drowning in it, emptying it with a thimble. But deprivation of material things in an age of vast excess of them (for those who can afford them) in interesting. I read about the past and turn off the lights in the other room :P. I read about the past and about things like fast fashion and vow to have shoes mended and so on.
I remember a Thai telling us that not eating every grain of rice we took and put on our plate was very disrespectful. Rice is considered very precious. Made me much more aware of what and how much I was eating.
Ultralight
1-10-17, 8:10am
I remember a Thai telling us that not eating every grain of rice we took and put on our plate was very disrespectful. Rice is considered very precious. Made me much more aware of what and how much I was eating.
This is in large part why when I go to a buffet I just get one plate. Eating more than I need is wasteful (though I still do it in other contexts, it is a very hard habit to break). I know that if I am eating to the point of weight gain then I am wasting food.
Chicken lady
1-10-17, 8:45am
My dad used to point out often that we eat better than kings in the Middle Ages. I learned about things like scurvy and rickets and vitamin A blindness as a small child. He also used to tell me that I would have been a poor investment with my horrible vision and hearing issues and his best bet would have been to leave me at a convent. Although with my tonsils that tried to kill me and my brother's allergies, defective cooling system, and frequent illnesses, neither one of us would have been likely to survive childhood....
he also freaked out when I told him my 5 y.o. had scarlet fever. I responded "what? They gave her a shot. She can go back to school tomorrow." And he cried because it almost killed his brother.
Yes, I am aware at times and other times not. I have some families (fewer and fewer) that struggle a lot and that makes me more appreciative. One family with no car, broken phone, an glitchy computer. Mom had to push baby over in a cheap stroller in the snow to pick up kids from school. She has been working hard for the last year to get jobs and build a career, it isn't happening. The things that make life easier and even possible in the US (phone, computer and outside of big cities a car) have a huge impact when you don't have them.
That privilege goes beyond the material sphere as well. I had that thought when a friend emailed me Meryl Streep’s recent homily to the nation. Here, I thought, is one of the most privileged people on the planet, who has grown wealthy in the creation of perhaps the most frivolous product devised by man, preaching to a roomful of inebriated millionaires about how “vilified” they all are.
How rich does a society have to be to afford the luxury of such people preening and congratulating themselves on their manifest virtue and importance? Could Shakespeare have spoken like that about Elizabeth I? I consider the bloody centuries of dearly bought human capital invested to get us to the point where something like that could occur, and I reflect on how truly fortunate we are.
Streep's words were self-indulgent, yes, but manifestly true.
I don't begrudge her--or anyone else, really--a princely income. I'm more worried about the wealthy and powerful circling Washington like sharks who are ready to enrich themselves further and further at our expense. But then, their kind has always been with us, even if we managed to keep them mostly at bay for a few decades.
As a woman, I welcome the "privilege" of having control over my life, which is historically a novelty. I hope that other marginalized people who have recently wrested control over their lives from the hands of the over-privileged and pious don't lose too much ground in the coming years.
Another example of privelege. When it snows a lot in NYC my mega corp employer closes the office. When a typhoon hits Manilla our service center there still expects everyone to come to work because the US offices are still open and will need their services.
I work as a server in the dining room at an assisted living facility. Every day I'm amazed that so much food is uneaten and thrown away by them---these same people that lived through hard times after the depression, grew up poor, had a tough time during the war, worked hard, etc. It kills me to throw it away!
I'm always grateful to have a car and not rely on public transportation (not that there's anything like that where I live).
I think sometimes older people just can't eat what they once did, food looses flavor so 'why bother' and institutions tend to rotate a pretty tight menu. If they get bored of chicken 10 out of 14 meals. Dentures don't fit or teeth are sensitive. Can you serve smaller portions or are they going through buffet style and their eyes are bigger than their tummies? I mention the chicken 10 out of 14 meals because one of my favorite college profs and her husband are in assisted living and she blogs daily on facebook about their experiences. She has never liked chicken and most of her posts start with "Yuck! Chicken again!"
iris lilies
1-10-17, 3:02pm
I think sometimes older people just can't eat what they once did, food looses flavor so 'why bother' and institutions tend to rotate a pretty tight menu. If they get bored of chicken 10 out of 14 meals. Dentures don't fit or teeth are sensitive. Can you serve smaller portions or are they going through buffet style and their eyes are bigger than their tummies? I mention the chicken 10 out of 14 meals because one of my favorite college profs and her husband are in assisted living and she blogs daily on facebook about their experiences. She has never liked chicken and most of her posts start with "Yuck! Chicken again!"
i agree, because the meals I've seen served are set out with specific portions.
My rule of life is always: if someone else chooses what to put on my plate, it is entirely my own choice what to eat. The elderly should not loose that right, and it is like treating them as small children to expect them to eat everything on their plate. But then, I have never understood the food insistance for children, either.
ApatheticNoMore
1-10-17, 6:00pm
Hard to imagine Meryl Streep being anything but classy, so I have my doubts that she was. But of course the product is unnecessary. I haven't seen a movie in a movie theater in over a decade, haven't owned a t.v. in about that long either, don't watch movies at home, anything I see is pretty much incidental because someone else is watching it. I stick to non-fiction books in sociology, history, science, psychology, etc.. And well bf occasionally drags me to small plays and art galleries. So Hollywood what is that anyway?
How rich does a society have to be to afford the luxury of such people preening and congratulating themselves on their manifest virtue and importance?
it has to be agricultural, surplus product, for poets, priests and politicians
Good points about food and the elderly. I often offer half portions to them. And they do gets lots of chicken and fish! But they love their ice cream.
Streep's words were self-indulgent, yes, but manifestly true.
Yes. My blood ran cold when she spoke of the dystopian nightmare of a world without Hollywood. Imagine life without Ricki and the Flash, subsisting on brutish gladiatorial contests.
Yes. My blood ran cold when she spoke of the dystopian nightmare of a world without Hollywood. Imagine life without Ricki and the Flash, subsisting on brutish gladiatorial contests.
...Which would the perfect entertainment for Emperor Donald I and his jackal-band of blood-thirsty misanthropes.
...Which would the perfect entertainment for Emperor Donald I and his jackal-band of blood-thirsty misanthropes.
Sounds like a great campaign slogan for Trump 2020. Or maybe "Hated by all the right people" or "Keep America deplorable."
I'm coming to believe that the condescending disdain of our self-styled elites may have been what put him over the top.
Sounds like a great campaign slogan for Trump 2020. Or maybe "Hated by all the right people" or "Keep America deplorable."
I'm coming to believe that the condescending disdain of our self-styled elites may have been what put him over the top.
I think that's very much true. When ideologies collide, the ones who scream and bray the most tend to steel the resolve of the opposition. That's why I love seeing and hearing the more emotional elements of our society lecturing conservatives or others simply caught in the cross-fire. They're creating converts one voter at a time.
By the way, has anyone heard from Peggy? I miss her.
I think the Left made two major strategic mistakes during the campaign (the Right made many, many mistakes during the primary season, but they tended to be more tactical in nature).
The first, as Ms. Streep (and many others) demonstrated, was the adoption of a posture of smug superiority. Meghan McArdle wrote a good piece on that today at https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-01-11/hey-hollywood-smugness-isn-t-a-political-strategy . By and large, that annoys people. Perhaps sometimes enough to influence votes.
The second is to attack and insult a candidate's supporters as well as the candidate. "Oh my, I couldn't bear it if Hillary thought I was deplorable. I better vote for her!"
There are many excellent reasons to despise Donald Trump. But it doesn't follow from that that outdoing him at obnoxiousness will be a productive strategy.
frugal-one
1-11-17, 5:29pm
Per above post..... There are many excellent reasons to despise Donald Trump. But it doesn't follow from that that outdoing him at obnoxiousness will be a productive strategy.
I think it would be very hard to beat him at being obnoxious. His constant, ridiculous tweeting is only one example!
iris lilies
1-11-17, 6:33pm
I think that's very much true. When ideologies collide, the ones who scream and bray the most tend to steel the resolve of the opposition. That's why I love seeing and hearing the more emotional elements of our society lecturing conservatives or others simply caught in the cross-fire. They're creating converts one voter at a time.
By the way, has anyone heard from Peggy? I miss her.
I was thnking about peggy this week because our new Republican governor took office this week. Peg and I are in the same state. He is kicking ass and taking no prisoners, but so far I dont think he is doing anything that would push peggy's buttons, that will cnever me later. ;)
I am MUCH happier woth our outsider governor than I am with our outsider President (although Trump gave a kick ass press conference today) I really like our new go ernor, Eric Greitens, and perhaps Democrats wont hate him too much because he was a Democrat before he turned Republican.Also, he is s from St. Louis. His wife was held up at gunpoint a few weeks ago and so has the full St. Louis experience.
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