Balancing Act, 16

I just read an interesting article, a column in the Globe and Mail by Margaret Wente, where she poses the idea that genetics have something to do with succeeding in life. Well--DUH!!! I rather thought that Charles Darwin had already made that abundantly clear in his Origin of the Species and his theories about natural selection. Isn't this also the basis for market capitalism? Survival of the fittest? I have to give Ms. Wente credit for her use of context, however. It is well-understood in liberal-progressive circles that social and economic disadvantage are the major vectors for breeding generations of losers dependent on social welfare services and prone to committing crime all of their short little lives, generation, after generation, after generation. That if only we were to do everything possible to level the playing field and equalize the life circumstances of children born in poverty and in socially and racially marginalized communities, that we would have more poor kids making it through high school and getting into university and graduating and finding nicely paid positions making them faithful little taxpayers and contributors to the common good for the rest of their rather longer little lives. Could be. But then Ms. Wente weighs in with the idea that genetics, and not social conditioning are more likely to determine a child's future success in life. Successful high-earning professionals are, after all, more likely to marry each other, and their progeny is going to enjoy that magic genetic alchemy that will guarantee a lifetime of winnings in the silver spoon lottery. That actually does make sense, but one should also factor in all the other advantages: a stable marriage, a nice home, a comfortable family income, social status, profession and connection, and the expectations and encouragement, all beginning from the cradle and earlier and well into adolescence, that their little mini-me is going to do well, do successfully, and make it life. Not all privileged offspring are necessarily going to do equally well, but they sure as hell have a better start than most people. In my own family we had one professionally successful sibling--my brother, three years older than me. And one loser--me. My father, incidentally, loved my older brother. My father didn`t love me. At all. No lines to read between here. My brother went on to enjoy a stellar and very lucrative career in radio broadcasting, though his addiction to cocaine eventually felled him, along with the fierce competition from younger rival candidates for his position. The marketplace is the mother of all blood sports. I had a strong artistic, intellectual and literary proclivity. I was also, unlike the rest of my family, a strong Christian with a very delicate conscience and an unquenchable zeal for social justice. I also grew up queer in an era and a family absolutely hostile to people who existed on that spectrum. My brother was quite average, very popular and well-liked, and an abusive sibling with rage issues. We have never reconciled. I was diagnosed as gifted with a much higher than average IQ. As well as questionable genes and a crappy family environment and being otherwise unusual, I had to get through the full range of abuse from every member of my family, ostracism from my peers, and my parents' divorce. Win the silver spoon lottery? I couldn't even afford a ticket. Even though it would be only too easy to call myself a loser who didn't work hard enough. And Peggy, or Margaret Wente, I do have this one single issue about your column this weekend. You insinuate that people born with the right sets of genes are also going to work harder. Harder than whom? I have worked very hard all my life, struggling to just survive most of the time, much less move forward, and when people like us are told that we are not successful because we did not work hard enough simply is not true. It is a lie of privilege and it is a huge slap in the face and for this reason, you and your ilk owe the millions who scrub your toilets, serve your food and coffee, cook and bring you your brunch, and wipe the backsides of your frail and infirm parents and grandparents who languish inside nursing home a huge apology. So, between me and my brother (so sue me, Rick Greenlaw, also known as Rick Shannon!), who is the real success story and who is the real loser? Even though I have been poor all my life I have not sat idly. True, I never swallowed the Koolaid of consumerism and capitalist materialism that has become the drug of contemporary Canadian culture, and for this reason I do not drive a car, and I do not own my own home. But my life has been predicated upon the values of the Christian Gospels: to care for others, to be kind, compassionate, to love justice, and to offer my life in service and sacrifice to others, doing so joyfully and with beauty and grace. There is absolute squat, dick-freaking all in our Canadian ethos that will accommodate people like me, so of course we end up marginalized and worse. But you know, something Gentle Reader? Without our prayers, our love, our care, our ministrations, and all the many ways that we bust our sorry ass to help care for and nurture the rest of you ungrateful bastards, this would be a much poorer harsher and much less kind place for people to live in. It is time to give us, the little ones who love God and humanity, our due, and to start adjusting and indexing this satanically harsh and ugly Neo-Darwinist playing field so that even people like me, who work as hard or even harder than you privileged idiots, can also live in dignity!