The myth of equal opportunity

It should be clear by now that every one of us is faced with different circumstances, different timings and different contexts within which we make our personal decisions and choices. I would be the last person to maintain that one's environment, one's social standing, one's economic situation is to blame, or is responsible for who or what one is or becomes in life. What I am saying, however, is that we can't completely ignore these factors either. The overall context in which we find ourselves always shapes and influences which choices we are presented with. I can't imagine that I will ever be in the situation to decide whether to buy the Bentley or the Rolls. A lot of things would have to change in my life for that choice to even become a possibility. I have also never been in the situation in which I had to decide whether I buy shoes or food, but there are many people on this planet who are. Are there right or wrong choices to made in either of these situations? I don't think so. It all depends on what got you to where you are and where you think you are heading after the decision. To blame the outcome merely on the decision is more than short-sighted.

It is quite obvious, at least for anyone who has even a minimal understanding of what the world is like, that different people in different contexts have different opportunities. Rich people in America are faced with much different choices that poor people there. Poor people in America are faced with much different choices than poor people in Iraq. Which choices one can make are determined to a great extent by the circumstances in which one finds oneself. When things are good, you certainly have better chances of making good decisions. When things are bad, the chances of making bad ones increases as well.

To assume, or worse, allege, that everyone has the same opportunities is simply ignorant. Rich people may be able to decide between Harvard or Yale for a college degree, but a poor person in rural Mississippi may have to decide between finishing high school or day-laboring to feed his mom. The opportunities of the two individuals are anything but equal. The notion of equal opportunity is a myth for the simple reason that it is an abstraction at such a level as to be theoretically admirable but impossible in practice. In other words, it's a nice thing to say in order to extract yourself from the awkward situation of having to admit that some people have it much better than others, and those with more don't have it because of anything they've done themselves, nor are those with less necessarily responsible for their shortcomings. In other words, it gives us all a convenient excuse not to have to deal with the fact and reality of any given situation, rather we can retreat into an unreal, abstract sphere where we may remain untouched by anything as dirty as reality.

The myth of equal opportunity is just like the myth of personal responsibility or the myth of the individual. They are merely excuses to not to have to think very deeply at all about things that affect everybody, those near to us and those far away. If you believe in the myths, then you also believe that you can absolve yourself of any responsibility for anyone else. And that, dear reader, is the wellspring of inhumanity. In invoking the myths we remove ourselves from the lives of others. Whatever befalls the others is their own doing, and I can wash my hands of any and all responsibility. What a cold, lonely world that must be.