Privilege, Baloney

The more one has, the more he has to give back.

Much of the Left’s program is similar to that of its commie predecessors in China and Russia. There is a Godly order, and commies spend their time, effort, and others’ blood in destroying it. Just a sampling of our present Left:

- End nuclear families and children with promotion of “trans,” not marrying and not bringing children into the world due to faux climate change

- End human progress with regressive approaches to energy

- End nation-states with endless illegal immigration to wipe out borders and nationalities

- End progress and success with DEI mediocrity replacing meritocracy

- End patriotism by promoting anti-home country narratives in “education”

One of the lies of the Left revolves around “privilege.” It’s a loaded word that they like to throw at anyone who either applies himself/herself or succeeds. Somehow all whites have privilege, even the poor ones in Appalachia and the guy who schleps Tiger Woods’ golf clubs around a golf course. Privilege is a two-edged sword: it gives cover to losers — I wasn’t PRIVILEGED to have all of those advantages that those other guys had. Also, I have arrows to shoot at Elon Musk and others to bring them down a peg for succeeding so much and making me look like the failure that I am. Privilege is the primal scream of someone who doesn’t want to play by the rules to get ahead: give me everything because I was cheated at birth. Winners are like Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He grew up in Jim Crow Savannah, Georgia, and went on to serve on the highest court in the land. The Left hates him. If he just sat at home and complained that he was a poor unfortunate threatened by those terrible white people, denied the opportunity to succeed in life, he would have been celebrated by the Left before they forget about him. The African American Museum tried to ignore him.

A long time ago in a distant age, British officers were populated almost exclusively from the upper classes of English society. Sure, they had the advantage that rank gives, and their conditions were better than that of the average soldier. But they were the ones who were to lead the charge, and they were the ones on whom blame fell when their men did not produce. Long ago, Britain used to hang admirals who failed in battle (“failing to do his utmost"), and those admirals no doubt had titles of Duke, Sir, Lord, and the like. Privilege in a Godly world means extra obligations. And that is how things used to be understood. “Noblesse oblige” was in effect until around the age of Kennedy, when the supposed “Best and Brightest” were tapped to run things instead of the president’s buddy from prep school or the local shooting club. If one had wealth, he was expected to share it with others and give of his time. If he had brains, he was tasked with sharing his knowledge with those less educated. Privilege was not having a leg up; it was the call to use one’s abilities and advantages to help others to make the world a better place.

Picture if J.K. Rowling had been told that she had privilege in being able to write so well and thus was forbidden to write the Harry Potter books. Endless millions have read them, watched the resulting movies, enjoyed the theme park attractions, and purchased merchandise. She used part of her wealth to defend U.K. women from the encroachment of men who have a fetish for pretending that they are women in order to enter the latter’s spaces. She could have stayed out of that fight, and her dumb movie stars would have feted her from here to Hogwarts. She could have kept the small fortune she has deployed and bought a few Scottish islands for her enjoyment. Instead, Ms. Rowling has used her writing “privilege” to add more color to this world, and she has used her resulting wealth to try to keep England somewhat sane. The British National Health Service (NHS) has been emboldened to state that it will ignore the Supreme Court ruling in favor of women being defined as, well, women. It’s like U.S. universities rebranding their DEI garbage under new names to similarly avoid the ruling of our Supreme Court. For the professional Left, the goal is destruction of norms; the law is for the little guy — and not of their concern. Harvard still has the same incoming class profile even after the Supreme Court ruled against it on affirmative action. Who would have thought it would be otherwise?

When I was in college, I went straight into a class in Organic Chemistry. My freshman advisor could only say to me, “That course gives me the shivers.” It was brutal, but by taking it early, I freed up later semesters for somewhat more enjoyable courses in and out of the sciences. Because my father was a chemist and I had taken AP chemistry in high school, I found myself a resource for many of my classmates taking introductory chemistry courses. I would not go so far as to say that there was a line outside of my dorm room, but on most nights somebody came by with an open textbook and a look of bewilderment. I know that I got more from those sessions than they did: you can’t teach something until you know the material cold. There was a story of a very big rabbi here in Jerusalem who said that before he gave his first Talmud lecture, he studied the material 70 times. Privilege in a normal, healthy society both gives and demands. One may benefit from being a genius or a world-class welder or a brilliant chef. But society expects the beneficiary of his skills to give back as well. Maybe not so well-known is a series by Gordon Ramsay where he went to a British jail and taught several inmates to cook. He didn’t have to do so, but both he and they benefited from his sharing his culinary wisdom to make a better future when those behind bars would go free.

When you can’t beat them, at least try to trip them up. Screaming privilege, especially “white privilege,” is intended to retard the successful and elevate the mediocre. Universities and other institutions no longer attempt to hide grants or opportunities for minorities only. They think that by tampering with the playing field, they will eventually straighten it out. Instead of attacking those who truly have skills or belittling disfavored groups, they should be celebrating the successful and encouraging others to learn from them. Remember the “Be like Mike” campaign around Michael Jordan? Do you hear anybody screaming, “Be like Elon?” Me neither, though he is the richest guy in the world and has, out of nothing, invented amazing companies like SpaceX, Tesla, the Boring Company, and Neuralink. He has revolutionized X (formerly Twitter) and did his best to reduce waste and fraud in the U.S. budget. Since lefties live on that waste and fraud and focus on Musk being white and not from South Africa, they can see no good in the man who is single-handedly revolutionizing automated driving with his Robotaxis. The Left does not want to lift up anyone; they simply want to pull everyone down into their mud pond.

There is no such thing as white privilege. There are many poor whites, just as there are many rich blacks and Hispanics. Whoever has a skill should make a living on it and also use that skill or income to make others’ lives better. Blessings are not a curse but an obligation for the receiver to use them and help others benefit from them.

Editor's Note: Do you enjoy Townhall's conservative reporting exposing the radical Left and woke media? Support our work so we can keep bringing you the truth.

Join Townhall VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.