Photo by Michael Milverton on Unsplash
We all have our childhood experiences, but for many forgotten
ones, childhood trauma has left such an indelible mark on their psyches that
they bear those marks of abuse everywhere they go, in everything they think,
feeling through a heart that was damaged so long ago.
The world is a place of power for the few, privilege for the
many, and privation for those lost ones society seems to care so little about.
Don’t get me wrong, there are always advocacy groups prepared to fight the
cause for the lost ones, but advocacy by its nature is reactive; the harm has
always already been done, or is being done, or both.
We each have a role in life
in terms of power, privilege, and privation.
in terms of power, privilege, and privation.
The powerful enjoy privilege and so often have caused privation,
not that every powerful person acts in a privileged way or causes privation.
Many deal with power and privilege responsibly, but so many don’t. There is a
case for those who experience sustained success, especially if they don’t have
to give appropriate account for their actions; often these people lack empathy
and misuse or abuse their power.
Those who have suffered much privation in life will not have
experienced much if any privilege, and they will almost always have been in
powerless situations, at the mercy of the powerful (and how ironic it is to use
the word ‘mercy’ in this context).
Those living in privilege, and I am counted in that number, often
need to be reminded of the mercy and compassion that is due for those who have experienced
much privation. It isn’t natural for us who have been born in our working-class
or middle-class families, who have lived working-class or middle-class lives,
to truly empathise with those society has rejected and abandoned. Our only real
hope is some kind of journey into grief, to suffer something enormously, to
know the enormity of anguish, which births compassion in us. And yet so many working-class
and middle-class people do, and they benefit accordingly.
Grief is good in that it can raise us
from a necessary death-of-self
to a life spent for others
in the very definition of compassion.
from a necessary death-of-self
to a life spent for others
in the very definition of compassion.
But we are all tempted to abuse what power we have. Those who’ve
suffered privation may appear to have no power, except for the power they have
within their own families to extrapolate the hurts from one generation to the
next. This is why those who have been subject to privation need compassion and
therapy and a way forward to break the curse, so their family has a fresh
chance. As a society, we have a role to ensure this is facilitated. But, as a
society, we have more often than not failed the forgotten ones.
Where we have power, we ought to de-power at the very power
structures we have responsibility for, without abdicating our responsibilities.
Power ought only to be given to those who have a desire to serve; who genuinely
seek to elevate people, especially those who have little or no influence over
such elevations.
Where we have privilege, we should be patently aware of the
luxury we have experienced and continue to possess, all the while being just as
aware of the impact that there is on those who do not enjoy such privilege. What
a gift that is truly to be able to see from privilege the disadvantages those without
privilege face. And how good it is when that vision is able to be converted
into action.
I have personally been in all three situations in my life, as a
person powerful in my profession, as a person who has enjoyed the privilege of
my culture, yet also as a person who has from time to time experienced privation
in the form of abuse. It is only the latter that has taught me anything,
especially in context of power and privilege. It is only the latter that has
taught me how much trauma sticks and changes people.
Without privation we can learn little
about the important things in life.
about the important things in life.
Power teaches us nothing unless we fail.
Privilege leaves us blind to what those without privilege face,
unless we are shown very intentionally
and can feel something of their pain.
unless we are shown very intentionally
and can feel something of their pain.
The powerful and privileged must be educated regarding the
worthiness of those who have suffered privation, but it is ironic that privation
is what they often must experience to truly understand.
Society is at its greatest when it cares best for its least.
Civilisation is founded on its just treatment of its vulnerable.
This article was inspired by How
You Can Care about Forgotten Australians.
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