Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Is it not possible to recognize that different people enjoy different privileges without arbitrarily constructing a rigid hierarchy (or ladder) of the same?

Yes. I was doing exactly that.

But nobody's interested in doing that because that renders the issue as diffuse as it should be. And what's diffuse is rarely worth discussing.

People want to discuss racial and patriarchal privilege. They don't want to get into other immutable issues like appearance, intelligence, physical abilities.

It's all too arbitrary. And it's still coupled with the arrogant notion we have a duty to empathize with one another. As much as I might agree with that personally, its an unrealistic and naive goal. It sounds a lot like a new age form of religion.

And I wouldn't be surprised to learn that 300 years from now, this sort of thing is described as an emerging form of humanism ironically quite similar to traditional religion. There's a very Jesusy ring to it all.