The Moral Luck Concept

It doesn't take a genius to understand that much of our destiny is somewhat predetermined by the place that we are born. My blog friend Don Hendricks (pictured here) shared these observations on his Not Whistling Dixie blog on Wednesday.

From the moment I cross the border in Mexico I cannot stop thinking about the life I live in America in the middle class. I try to figure out how all the people I see down there are surviving in those put together shacks, those without electricity, the unemployed, elderly.

I think about those raised in Arab countries being tyrannized by decades of corrupt leadership, those whose religion is as oppressive as their opportunities are limited.

So much of the physical and spiritual blessings I enjoy are because I was born in the right place and surrounded by the right messages. This is why we need to see spreading the compassion of God toward the poor and the downtrodden as a privilege and responsibility of those more fortunate, more lucky, than others.

Sometimes I think that we in the West have a tendency to forget that we are living in the prosperity earned by our forefathers. In a sense not one of us is a self-made person - not one of us lives a life independent of the moral luck of life.