Privileges of the Modern Man

We don’t have the privilege of living in ignorance.

Privilege implies ownership and the privilege of ownership is to develop and nurture the object of ownership with graceful pride.

It is yours to maintain as you would maintain your own body to operate at its highest level of personal performance. We have the privilege to own, feed, exercise and rest the body, in order to have a life of longevity. We, as modern humans, are living longer and we have more abundant choices in order to live smarter in our longevity. To own something or someone’s essence of being is to acknowledge the existence of that entity. With that acknowledgement, you automatically have to give it value. In the valuing, there is an inherent system of behavior expecting in the maintenance of the valuable. Ownership includes a living state of dominion. To be privilege is to have a special advantage, a sacred space of being.

I feel as if I am a privileged individual to be living in this modern society, even with its challenges. We have more options in our daily lives and in our futures. We are living longer and more actualized lives. We are on the road to balanced and shared lives. We are living and eating more organic, as well as ecologically. We have the privilege to live more holistic lives and the right to have sustainable, balanced lives.

We are all in the pursuit of happiness and our individual personal freedoms. “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is a quote from the Declaration of Independence.

The original meaning of “happiness” historically comes from gaining “the feeling of self-worth and dignity you acquire by contributing to your community and to its civic life.”

Is there a responsibility to our privilege? If there is, what is it? What is the responsibility for ownership? How do we value our societal gifting? What is the positioning of the modern man?

If we go by the stereotypical concept of the man owning the wife, children and property, there is a duty to honor the ownership and the developmental caring of said property. Even if we do not agree on level of ownership of the physical bodies, there is an ownership to the relationship involved, the ownership of your responsible part of the jointed relationship.

I believe the ownership, historically speaking, was a written and unwritten law of protection and responsibility, for the family unit.

The structure had a specific reason of existence, survival of the family. The survival of the family unit and the people thereof has a different viewpoint and a different face. In these modern times there exist a more equal balance of personal ownership and responsibility. We have assigned the roles of the family and the individual.  This modern phenomenon creates an arena of equal voices existing in the world choir. We cannot deny the value and the placement of the overlying or underlying any of our individual voices. Any action of that nature would create a sound of singing almost not worth listening to. In order to get a balanced sound, you have to listen to the other voices with caring ears. In using the caring ears, we practice the art of being privileged with a heart.

Using the power of the mind and the body to rule a person or an individual is not using the privilege of power.

The essence of who we are is embodied in the unity of us as a family, personal and universal. An example of a working cultural construct is Ubuntu, a South African concept which has its roots in humanist philosophy, a common humanity of oneness.

“Ubuntu is the essence of being a person. I mean that we are people through other people. We cannot be fully human alone. We are made for interdependence; we are made for family.”

The illusion of anyone being singular and separated within a modern context is unreal and delusional. We are connected by air, land and sea. We are connected by energy, purpose and a basic familiar structure of family and purpose. The honoring of this archetypical structure is honoring the sanctity of the human survival. The survival of the human race is a sacred task of existence and essential to the pursuit of happiness. A sacredness of being holds a duty of using the privilege of power for the higher good of all around us. I understand this concept because I come from a strong family unit embedded in unity as an honor of a graceful life.

“When you have Ubuntu, you embrace others. You are generous, compassionate…You are rich so that you can make up what is lacking for others. You are powerful so that you can help the weak, just as a mother or father helps their children.” -Archbishop Desmond Tutu

I believe we have the privilege to be our full selves while we assist all others around to achieve greatness. This greatness can only be accomplished with the joining of human hands.

The joining of these hands is a sharing of power with no undo hovering of “one voice” having the ultimate power. When we share power, we share the heart of our society and we are all able to feed on the blood of freedom. We all have the privilege of power and shared power empowers the collective whole in the form of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

—

This post is republished on Medium.

***

You Might Also Like These From The Good Men Project

Compliments Men Want to Hear More Often

Relationships Aren’t Easy, But They’re Worth It

The One Thing Men Want More Than Sex

..A Man’s Kiss Tells You Everything

—

Photo credit: iStock