Like many of these concepts, opportunity can be subjective. I have written several times about absolute and subjective interpretation. I have also landed on the the idea of absolute definition when it comes to philosophy, like I am going to discuss today. However, it is complicated.
What is opportunity in the context of America? I think that the version of what we are talking about stems from our European origins. In my opinion, it technically means that we don’t have a ruling family or class and therefore there is not a glass ceiling for any individual. Meaning, it is possible for anyone of us to do anything that we set our minds to.
Obviously, there are sometimes physical limitations like someone in a wheelchair is likely not going to play in the NBA. I think most people get that exception to that. So we are really talking about the potential to do anything that we are capable of doing. I am not putting them down, it would be analogous to someone saying I want to live underwater like a merman. It is a limitation of the human body and the application of what we are trying to accomplish.
Do we really have the opportunity to do anything we want? Well, yes and no. We have the opportunity to do whatever we want as long as it is not interfering with someone else. And, I am not talking about criminal enterprise, I am talking about once we get to a certain level we start to interfere with powerful and rich people that don’t want someone to succeed at their expense.
Do you remember when we had George W. Bush’s ‘Too Big to Fail’ policy? Pure opportunity would have let those organizations fail and some bank with less debt or a better strategy would have assumed their position. We didn’t let those banks and investment firms fail because it would have literally crushed the economy (as it is currently created). Let’s be honest if the failure would have only hurt the common man, it would have likely happened but because it effected the Oligarchs as well then it was ‘too big to fail’.
There’s that word Oligarchs… I think we know some of them Gates, Walton, Bloomberg, Musk etc. There are others like Kennedy and Rockefeller that are familiar but we don’t get the connection and still others that we don’t know. This isn’t about conspiracy, this is about stating that there are forces beyond elected officials that are influencing policy much greater than voting.
The way to disrupt the system is to not play the same game. The rise of cryptocurrency is going to eventually ridicule traditional financial vehicles. And then, we may have a new batch of Oligarchs. There is hope, technologies suck as block chain will end the graft and influence that goes along with it. This is because there is no debate with public block chain, it is binary. You did it or you didn’t. You paid or you did not. It is all a matter of what is recorded, it is all visible and transparent.
I want to end this now because there are so many other aspects to opportunity than problems a few people will deal with. Probably what most people focus on is not whether you can become an oligarch but can you get out of the housing projects. I think the answer is yes but I will not deny that it will be difficult and most won’t.
If your mother was a drug addict or in an abusive relationship, what is a six year old going to do about that? To make matters worse, when that condition becomes normalized to a child they may not even recognize that there are other options. When you can be easily distinguished by the color or your skin as different, I will say that is a potential obstacle to overcome. But If there is a spark, if there is one person to be a role model, if there is desire then there is still opportunity.
I hate to say it, but some people are not going to have opportunity. This is not because it doesn’t exist but because it was taken from them. This is analogous to having someone steal your bike. You know how to ride, there are roads, there is nothing preventing it except you do not have a bike. Therefore, the opportunity to ride a bike is not there because it was taken. No matter how much you want to ride a bike or others want you to ride a bike or the government builds bike lanes, it doesn’t make it not stolen.
I suppose that is another aspect to this. Some people will not even notice their bike was stolen. Other’s will get a job or save money or put it on a credit card. The most important thing is that they have the drive to replace it. There is a third person that spends all of their time wallowing in the fact that the bike was stolen rather than moving on. Many would probably argue that there is a forth person that wants to be the second.
Because of their circumstances, it is difficult to get a job or save money or get credit. I am being simplistic, but to me that is a form of the third. It very well may be that they are barely making it on two jobs with five kids. If we are to assume that everything is on the up and up, we can credit them for taking responsibility for prior decisions. That is not to say that they couldn’t abandon their kids and sign-up for a new life, maybe in small increments at a time.
I am not suggesting that they do this. What is says to me is that is decisions have consequences. And consequences may limit opportunity out of morality. That is definitely the right thing to do but it is not lack of opportunity. Probably the best descriptor is opportunity wasted (sorry for being harsh).
Still other’s are going to argue this term systemic racism or women are not treated equal as men. Equality is a subject for next week but in reality, equality always relates to opportunity like rights to liberty. So, I will shelve that particular aspect and we will get into it next week.
End Your Programming Routine: I will never make it as a Supreme Court Justice because I am not a black woman – that is lack of opportunity for sure Joe Biden. But, it doesn’t mean I can’t try. I could go to law school, campaign to be a judge and work my tail off. Someday, another president will actually look at all the facts when making considerations for a nominee. Opportunity doesn’t guarantee that I will succeed but that whatever I want is possible.
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