Dunedin Mum
I’m overweight. It’s my spoon’s fault, of course.
Try as I might to be thin, that spoon keeps treating me badly, forcing me to fail my diet, forcing me to eat too much, then blaming me for my fatness.
I am an innocent victim of spoonism. Systemic spoonism, in fact.
I’m sure that if my spoon wasn’t such a spoonist, I’d be skinny.
I like this idea, because it means I don’t have to take responsibility for what I do. What I eat, what I do – it has nothing to do with my weight. I can blame everything on the spoon.
It’s very convenient. Spoon = perpetrator. Me = victim. I have a limitless, endless excuse for not improving myself. I can also obtain the sympathy of other victims of systemic spoonism. We can all blame our spoons together, and keep enjoying our family-sized chocolate bars, litre tubs of ice cream and large pizzas with all the toppings.
Spoon fragility theory proves that my spoon (not me!) is the problem and that my spoon (not me!) is to blame for my weight woes. No matter what I do, that spoon keeps on making me fat. What I eat or do not eat – what responsibility I take or do not take – has nothing to do with my weight.
My problems are the spoon’s fault.
Spoonism goes back hundreds of years. From the moment my ancestors were first provided with spoons and spoons first arrived in New Zealand, clearly the goal of the spoons was to make us all fat. To kill us.
Spoon privilege and white privilege
Just as it is clearly the spoon’s fault that I am fat, It is clearly the fault of our education system, and our health system, and our political system (heck, ALL our systems!) that some demographics perform better in some fields than others.
White privilege in action. That sounds a lot like spoon privilege in action. Problems are the fault of the system, not the person. Nobody is at fault except the entrenched, all-powerful spoon. Or that entrenched, all-powerful white privilege.
This is what we’re being told by the media. This is what our kids are being taught in school. This is the line that the Far Left are taking: white people are all evil, New Zealand culture is all evil, and that all evil spoon is to blame for me being fat.
However, here are three simple facts that don’t quite fit the narrative:
- Asian students outperform white students at every level of education
- Indian families outperform white families in developing and operating small, successful independent businesses, and are wealthier than white New Zealanders as a group
- Maori people outperform whites on the sports field.
Flip these facts another way, and you might ask:
- Is education to blame for Asian success?
- Is business to blame for Indian success?
- Is sport to blame for Maori success?
More to the point: if white privilege was to blame for all our problems, wouldn’t all non-white people fail dismally at everything and all white people in New Zealand be successful?
Instead, reality seems to suggest that:
- Asian students outperform whites in education because they strive for excellence in this field
- Indian families excel at small business because they strive for excellence in this field
- Maori people are better at rugby because they strive for excellence in this field.
Is it hard work, talent and perseverance – or is it white privilege?
Maybe people of all backgrounds excel in New Zealand when they work hard, persevere and have a bit of talent to begin with. Likewise, people of all backgrounds fail when they quit, don’t work or don’t care.
Success in life is a mixture of hard work and ability. There’s a bit of luck involved too, such as being in the right place at the right time, or having a good idea before anyone else comes up with it.
Another factor that dictates success: perseverance. Sticking to your goals, no matter how difficult. Learning from mistakes and failures. Building on experience and hard work. Not being a quitter.
Trying, then trying again. And again. And again.
If this is true, that might mean that if I stuck to my diet, didn’t quit, and stopped shovelling ice cream into my mouth every evening I might lose weight.
(Surely not!)
It might even make more difference than blaming the spoon.
Please share so others can discover The BFD.