You know what I was thinking about lately?

Earning Privilege?

How a lot of people behave as if they were born into their situation in life because they have earned it. That their race, physical appearance, the circumstance of their lives and other similar traits they were born with, were bestowed upon them. They feel they have a right to these circumstances. They might claim that they are ‘blessed’ with good fortune but then turn around and behave with arrogance to the less fortunate. Often when no one else is watching.

Also, these same people behave like those born poor and powerless have to just ‘deal with it’. Indeed, they have a perception that they, as the more privileged ones, can ignore and mock the plight of the less privileged.

The Star Treatment

People often mistake titles, high positions and having wealth, as grounds for being respected. Somehow, these special respected ones ‘earned’ their right to be treated a certain way and to behave a certain way. Yet, the greed and thirst for power of some of these same select few, is the cause of much misery and suffering in the world.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not saying for one moment that all people born into privilege are bad people. Nor that working one’s way up to an elite status is wrong.

The Soul and the Afterlife

But what if we looked at all this another way?

What if we see where we go in the afterlife or after death, as the paramount goal? And that this afterlife is a result of what we have strived to do in the course of our lives? Like how we treat people who can give us nothing in return, how we examine our conduct first before blaming others or how we view people who are different?

This is my perspective because I am very convinced of the soul journey. I talked about the soul journey in Captain of My Soul.

Treated with Dignity

All I am saying is that we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that every living human being has the right to be treated with dignity. That we shouldn’t allow a special set of privileges for an elite group of people. We cannot allow them to get a free pass from the rest of us, even if they have worked their way up over a period of time. This pass, it appears, would allow them to be cruel, break the rules or to demand that they get better treatment than their fellow human beings.

This article is not about respecting the rule of law. But on a more fundamental level, it is about us making the effort to be kind and to avoid making people feel miserable. It is an effort we can all make.

Morality and Being Kind to Others

It is about morality.

We may not know what someone is facing at any given time. When a situation arises, how do we behave? Do we realize that treating people cruelly or harshly could have damaging long-term consequences for them?

If we think about it, our lives are made up of a number of individual encounters and interactions, a series of experiences. We can contribute to a good experience or a bad experience for our fellow man.

Conclusion

Ultimately, we cannot make someone respond in a certain way to us, but we can definitely control how we behave. All of us can treat the less fortunate without mocking or contempt.

So, being kind, caring and tolerant, means we are contributing to someone else’s life experience. Our behavior towards others, in turn, ensures that we can earn the respect of people who have witnessed and see how we sincerely treat the less fortunate. Now this respect, is what we truly earn.

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