Two Sides of the Same Coin

The saying implies that two separate ideas have the same value, as in a coin where the value is the same regardless of which side is up. However, we often have to turn the coin to see the true value, so too with the idea that entitlement and privilege are the same things.  Are they?

Entitlement

If I am entitled to something it could mean that I have earned it but also that I paid for it. That I assume entitlement to something without ownership or without having earned it, is what I see as privileged, sometimes incorrectly. We say that people who are privileged feel entitled – meaning they have no appreciation for their advantage in life. This can happen because of a lack of exposure to realities other than their own.  It can lead to the perception that privileged people have no empathy for anyone less fortunate than themselves.

Disadvantaged

When we turn the coin, what do we really see? Does privilege entitle and is entitlement reserved for the privileged? What of the entitled disadvantaged people? Is there such a group? Are there people who feel entitled to a better life because of their disadvantages? Something, who knows what, gives them the sense that they need not earn that better life. Hard work is not part of their plan. This group, and yes it exists, will take the shortcuts that can lead to corruption, crime and chaos; very much like the crimes of the entitled privileged. Two sides of the same coin?  So is the problem with advantage and a sense of entitlement, or is it something else? Whether advantaged or disadvantaged, they seem to have the same problem of entitlement.

Privilege

We may have to look to the origins of privilege for an answer. It seems too easy to dismiss this as human nature and that it’s merely that the ‘have-nots’ will always want what the ‘haves’ have.

There is nothing wrong with wanting what we don’t have, there is everything wrong with feelings of entitlement. The privileged class stands on the shoulders of the underprivileged. The very terminology suggests an imbalance. So how is this re-alignment to happen where one side has less and the other has more?  We developed as humans from where the strong become the dominant group.  Where the smarter people outplayed the not so smart, to extreme situations where slavery became the norm in the ancient and the modern world. Society saw itself as humane, even to thinking to enslave meant to care for and also that enslaving would have a civilizing influence on ‘primitive’ people. We have changed little, so I shouldn’t call it developing perhaps we morphed into a more virulent state with the escalating human traffic industry!

Trapezoid

I’m not advocating turning society’s triangle into a trapezoid because this is not in human nature to do so, as there will always be people who reach the peaks of achievement faster than others. Would we not be in a better place, though, if the planet’s nations considered the advantages of a more fair society?

Would it not be better if competition took a back seat to allow the world’s inhabitants, human and non-human including vegetable, some breathing space.

Why not focus on innovation, co-operation, and survival, instead of who must dominate and how?  Will COVID-19 teach us this? Can we not try the practical route instead of the philosophical idealism, which seems ever unattainable? Can we not mint a new coin where the two sides are labor and unity which will stand for working together for a new world!

Lynda Rogle©