Was visiting a older gentleman in my family whom I respect. He lives in a very beautiful area and his partner is just the nicest. He’s retired and spends his time fishing.
I was complimenting him and said. ‘You really are a lucky guy.’
he said ‘OH. I hate it when people say that. This was a plan and I worked hard’.
He then told me about how he worked for the same school district for 30 years! And got a pension and spent wisely.
Damn. 30 whole years.
This is the outcome I wish for everyone. But God damn the gall. Just judging people based on outcome. Everyone works hard. Not taking into consideration the shear luck of so many thing lining up in your favor. Did you plan on being born in the imperial core, white, able, educated during the greatest economic boom the world has ever seen?
Me I! I did this! All me! Me!
Ugh.
I think movies may have trained some of us to not notice luck. Like, if your born at the right time or to the right parents, you don’t notice that for all the “hard-work, bravery, and can-do attitude” protagonists may exhibit, the story still wouldn’t work if they weren’t just plain old right-place-right-time lucky. Manufactured luck, narrative luck, yes. But still luck. Maybe if your born on third-base, these narrative leaps just seem… realistic?
…is that too cynical?
Also intelligence, strength, skill, health, and attitude are all luck. I find the logical leap from “I have superior attributes as a biological specimen” to “I deserve better privileges” absurd and vaguely fascist
health is a real crapshoot, i’ll give you that
But the rest of that list is behaviors and qualities you can cultivate. Intelligence isn’t some hard stat like the calculations-per-second in a computer, it’s a process of clear methodical thinking that is learned. How fast or slow you may think doesn’t limit how smart you can be. And a ‘skill’ is just a set of behaviors that have been refined with practice, you’re not born with them. Attitude is… harder, but it’s something you learn to work with as you get a better sense of the inputs and patterns behind it.
