I do not accept the power differential

Why should I? Why should I bow down, defer, bend? They're no better than me - no smarter, in no way more valuable than I am.

We get all these messages from the culture about how women are the same as men (and yet, at the same time, not); how everyone has an equal chance (the meritocracy myth). And yet: It's all a lie. We aren't the same; we don't all have the same shot at success.

I'm probably getting boring with beating this same old drum over and over again, but I feel like I can't say it often enough: Most of the unfairness humans is experience is perpetuated by other humans.

Yes, there are plenty of 'act of god' unfairnesses like hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, etc. But in the larger scheme of thing? Most unfairnesses, the ones that really grate on us, are the ones perpetrated by other humans.

Why do I fight this, you say? Why don't I just give in?

And I say, why should I?

You might say, well, wouldn't it at least be more peaceful?

And I say, Give me freedom or I'm fucking out of here.

And I do not mean the freedom to

suffer;
be equally oppressed.

Power is like the water the fish swims in: People who have it can't see it - they take it for granted.

The Secret says the barriers to 'success' are internal. I say they're external.

I say it's like blaming the sunflower that was planted in the shade for failing to grow as tall as the ones that had lots and lots of sun. Once again: We have no control over our circumstances. We have no control over whether we were born

rich
pretty
smart
strong
fast
talented

We have no control over whether we grew up in a society that values traits other than the ones we innately possess. To see someone else succeeding at what you have tried again and again to achieve can be the source of the utmost anguish. Think of Salieri in Amadeus: One man, Mozart, is held up as a genius, elevated to the status of prodigy by a capricious king. Salieri, the court composer, is displaced by the brash, crude young upstart, humiliated in front of his peers by Mozart's dazzling, and apparently effortless, displays of musical prowess. Salieri, mortified, takes his revenge on Mozart by slow degrees, playing on the man's vanity, taking advantage of his penchant for juvenile and tasteless displays by seeing that appreciation for Mozart's gift is overshadowed by the hoi polloi's disgust at his lack of taste (or good judgment - is there a difference?).

Links:
Power and Powerlessness by Susan Rosenthal
Victim Blaming and the Power Hierarchy
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh
The Male Privilege Checklist

I do not like
green eggs and ham.
I do not like them,
Sam-I-am.

I will not eat them with a mouse.
I will not eat them in a house.
I will not eat them here or there.
I will not eat them anywhere.

I do not like green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am.