Gymkhanas All

Privilege will never go away. Because it’s pure human instinct. But it’ll take interesting forms

Privilege is many things. One of them is the ability to say no to authority. Govt builds a new expressway, thousands of farmers give up their land. But one holds out. You might label it defiance, but there’s no defiance without privilege. Whoever coined the word, chose its roots carefully: privus lex, private law, or an exception to a general law. Not having to go through a general security check, for example. Or gaining entry to Delhi’s elite Gymkhana Club, famous for its 30-year waiting period, and now a two weeks’ eviction notice.

But the lone man facing down tanks on Tiananmen Square, how was he privileged? Well, he had the assumption of privilege, which is sometimes more powerful than systemic privileges of caste, race, colour, wealth, status, etc. Gumption is privilege because it is so rare. In 19th-century Russian literature, serfs bear beatings of their masters without complaint. Early in 20th century, the same people wiped out the nobility. Just as it happened in France. What changed? The gumption of a few taught the many to resent. And it happens more often now, old privilege vs gumption.

Of course, privilege, as we commonly understand it – unearned advantage – came first. Kings and priests were deeply privileged from the time they were invented. Egypt didn’t raise pyramids for humble workers. If privilege has been around forever, is it a feature or a bug? Both – it’s a feature for the few, and a bug for the many. Privilege exists because we are selfish, and we are selfish because, in a world of scarcity, selfishness is rational. Privilege eases access to things – front-row tickets, for example – services, and the seat of power itself.

It’s a fact that even the ‘many’, who resent the privileges of others, crave them. Revolutionary France, Soviet Union, Cuba, Iran…everywhere, the agents of change grabbed power, and privilege. We want privilege because privilege begets privilege. Society works on mutual back-scratching. Because privilege is exclusive by nature, it shuts the door on the many, perpetuating the advantages that we may have earned at some point, but now want to pass on, in unearned and undeserved form, to our children. Privilege, then, is a big ‘No Entry’ sign for those who arrived after us. Which is why it’s so unpopular. Should we have privilege then? No. Will we ever get rid of it? No, because new privilege will always arise from the ashes of the old.