A Venerable Privilege

     One of the central tenets of the broader Left is an axiomatic worldview of oppressors and the oppressed, the former gaining their lofty status through unearned privilege. In this Rawlsian view, because some children had a better upbringing than others, those who grew up in a good family had unearned privilege which must be countered in order to equalize society so that those without said unearned privilege will be on an equal status. From this, the Leftist secular catechisms oft wail, a utopia will spring forth based upon that Philosopher’s Stone of absolute equity.

     While in a good society, and venerable civilization, there is a desire to help the less fortunate, especially children who are not responsible for their place in life, absolute equality serves to harm all children. In so equalizing upbringings, natural and normal differences in upbringing lose all consequence. An intact family with supportive parents who provide a solid moral base and every opportunity to learn and grow will naturally result in children who are more likely than not to be well adjusted, self-disciplined, and productive. A broken family, or single parent households, where children are ignored, abused, and surrounded in an environment of violence, sloth, and ennui, is far more likely than not to result in children who will never do well in life and will be far more likely to be a drain on society, if not outright be a criminal element therein.

     This is not “injustice”, it is a reflection of reality. It is a matter of the consequences of good parenting vs. bad parenting.

     Those good parenting traits are not unearned privileges, but rather the natural result of parents choosing wisely and putting in the time and effort to invest in their children. By equalizing the impact of the family upbringing, the rewards for the hard work and doing the right thing are eliminated, while passiveness and outright bad parenting are rewarded. This does nothing but encourage people to not put in the time and effort to imbue their children with the values that lead to success and happiness.

     Society, then, is weakened and eaten away by the destruction of the very values that allow it to exist in the first place. The Left are happy to do this because they want to destroy all social mores and traditions that lead to happiness and prosperity just because not everyone is partaking of it equally.

     In actually, it is inequality in this case which is good and desirable in that good parenting should result in better outcomes than bad parenting, and that such outcomes are manifest and valued in concert with the value given to the good parenting.

     No amount of social engineering will change the parental instinct to help one’s child to get ahead in life.  Those in a position of power will almost always be able to provide advantages for their children, if not by instilling virtues and ethics, than by using their influence and power.  Denigration of those values and ethics that comprise good parenting does nothing but augment actual unearned privilege while punishing actual good parenting by those who do not have such pull.

     No, not everyone will be born in equal circumstances. Nor can there be precluded that rich but horrible parents give their children unfair advantages, or that poor but venerable parents can help their children raise to the level of the rich children of horrible parents, let alone surpass them. However, good parenting will maximize real and lasting benefit that the child has and empowers them to succeed by their own measure.

     Rather than degenerate the good, and subsidize the bad, we should be raising good parenting on a pedestal as something to emulate. This is why speaking of helping up the disadvantaged is venerable, but combating the “privilege” of good parenting is pernicious.

     Yes, helping unfortunate children is good and proper, but no amount of aid will actually help them in the long run unless they also adopt the values and ethic that will allow them, and their own children, to escape those conditions that led to poverty and abuse. Without the expectation of adopting and emulating those values that lead to positive outcomes, no amount of social engineering will improve anyone’s life, let alone the health of society, and will most likely end up harming both children of rich and/or wise parents and children of poor and/or horrible parents equally. Simply setting up a superficial equality will not help people; only by adopting those proven values and ethics that are conducive to prosperity and a good moral foundation in life will anyone be lifted out of the morass of poverty and depravity.

     It is incumbent, then, upon all who care about a vibrant and strong society to not only raise children right, or as a child to hold those values and ethics true, but to provide an example to emulate, making sure to denigrate the conditions of bad parenting while being accepting of those who work to raise out of their former station in life by demonstrating what ought to be expected our of anyone, regardless of upbringing. It is this expectation and set of social norms that ought to and must be applied equally to all children and adults.

     If good parenting is a “privilege”, than it is a venerable one worth emulating.

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