“Privilege becomes dangerous when it mistakes its own good fortune for a category of personal achievement.”
— The Sage
The Sage has often noticed that success has a curious effect on memory. Once we have reached somewhere comfortable, it can be surprisingly easy to forget the people, circumstances and fortunate turns that helped us get there. Hard work certainly matters, but few lives are built by effort alone. Opportunity, timing, encouragement and simple good fortune often play supporting roles that become less visible with hindsight.
Privilege itself is not something The Sage considers shameful. Having opportunities, advantages or security can be enormously positive, particularly when they are recognised and used generously. The problem begins when good fortune is rewritten entirely as personal achievement — when being dealt a favourable hand becomes proof that we must simply have played the game better than everyone else.
With his usual suspicion of convenient explanations, The Sage reminds us that humility means acknowledging both our effort and our luck. We should take pride in what we genuinely achieve without assuming that everyone began from the same starting line. Success deserves celebration; it simply becomes wiser when accompanied by gratitude.
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