This issue of fortune is too important than to be used as a political attack on ownership, as the article hints.

Should year-4 students feel either victims or losers because they are not in year-6? Or should perhaps year-6 students feel victims or losers because they have two years less to live than those of year-4?

This question seems ridiculous only because we assume that it is the same student who once is in year-4 which then moves on to year-5 and year-6.

But what makes it the same student? both their body and their mind are constantly changing: body cells are all totally replaced within 7 years, just as old memories are forgotten or distorted and new memories are formed. Hence, if those who identify the student with their body or with their mind were consistent, then 4th-grade kids should be jealous at 6th-grade kids and vice-versa.

Without a spiritual perspective, that there is more to life than fortune, that the fortune we have now consists precisely of those tools that we require for the particular class we are currently in; and without the recognition of the operation of karma, or the results of one's action, beyond the grave, everyone should be jealous at everyone else for one thing or another - and no one is to find contentment. Further, without the spiritual dimension, we are all losers anyway because then we are destined to die and cannot take with us any of our current the wealth or deeds.

Most of this nonsense is just rubbish!
Nobody chooses to be born poor, or in a post code generational poverty trap.
No one chooses to be gang raped, albeit, some very simple trusting folk were. So whats the answer?
Carry a gun and assume personal responsibility for our own safety, given no amount of law enforcement guarantees it!?
Yes sure there are poor decisions and drama queens playing the victim, when all else fails?
But who are the real victims then, those playing the martyr, or those taken in by it?
For mine this just underlines the need for true equality of opportunity, and equality in so called starting points, or education and health.
Sure, lets introduce means testing to ensure the system is not rorted.
And then having given everyone an equal fair start, let them assume responsibility for outcomes, which would then be down to them, rather than serendipity, or being born into advantage.
The cream will always rise to the top!
No it won't if it's been homogenized by the cruel grind that is endemic poverty.
It's no mistake that the man with the highest IQ in the country, found himself limited to carrying garbage cans!
Maybe that's all he wanted? Yeah sure!
Victims come and go, some are real, others are just cursing their fate. And that is I'm sure, down to Karma.
Even so, a good guiltless starting point, must be treating all else as you would be treated, if in their shoes; rather than exploiting or scapegoating them; or using them as an excuse for inaction!?
Inasmuch as you do unto the least among you, you also do unto me. (JC)
Rhrosty.

God don't we get some twaddle on here.

My father spent 2 years during the depression clearing scrub, for 10 shillings & keep a week, & a tent to live in.

He was just married, with a pregnant wife, when WW11 started. He came out of the air force at 40, with a cheap demob suite, & 26 pounds, just enough to get to Townsville, where he'd landed a job.

He retired to a nice home by the water, & a little boat to go fishing. Yep he worked for it.

I played football & ran miles barefoot like many others, because our parents could not afford boots & running shoes.

In my country town school with only 12 in 5Th year, 6 of us did science honors lunchtime & after school, as the school could not offer physics. We therefor needed honors to earn the points to get the university scholarship we wanted. Mine was from General Motors.

The science master who gave those afterschool classes taught us we could do anything we wanted, if we wanted it enough. Most country schools still have such masters.

I flew the best fighters Australia had, drove the best formula 1 racing cars of my day, & sailed the Pacific in my own yacht, because I wanted to enough to get off my ass, earn the money, & do it.

I have no time for cry babies who sit on their fattening ass, & bleat it's someone elses fault.

Get a life.

Yep Hasbeen, it is as always, all about you.
>Most country schools still have such masters<
I beg to differ, and kids these days are lucky to leave with enough numeracy to get a job, let alone an honors Graduation and or a scholarship.
My science teacher was eventually jailed for pedophilia! And just between you and me, none of his students earned carer or scholarship assisting honors! And don't tell me how sorry you are for that, because, the truth be known, you just don't give a rats!
You fail to understand the role sheer unadorned luck played in your outcomes, including a stable home and a dad who took his responsibilities seriously.
Plus a science master truly dedicated to his students and school, and all it seems, taken for granted or your due!? No shoes the least of your worries!
You were the very opposite of a victim, but rather the favorite of very partial serendipity.
40% of today's kids don't have a stay at home dad, providing support, encouragement and protection!
So just forget the usual blame the victim mentality, that's par for the course horse manure for you, which just doesn't assist anyone, not even the older I am the better I were types, just like you come across as.
Take away a stable home life, a responsible dad and a dedicated science teacher; and things for you could have been very different!
And you, self satisfied smugness personified, knows it!
Rhrosty.

Seems like a reasonable enough argument to me.
Henry Giroux has been making the same argument(s) for quite some time now.
His work could best be summarized in the title of one of his books Zombie Politics. See the interview with Bill Moyers on Raw Story via Henry's website.

Great response from Rhrosty.

Thank you for the kind words Rhrosty, misery will always find a friend, & failure an excuse. Yes I did very well, but I did not cost a single taxpayer a single extra penny, than those who did not.

Yes we have some problems with the education system taken over by lefty feminists, trying to bring everything down to their own level, but rather than bitch, you have to fight.

My eldest daughter, & about 10 of her mates wanted an OP 2 or better, in a school where the only teacher who could even do year 12 math C & physics was a union delegate, & often absent on union work.

However a very good biology teacher, & a great headmaster helped organise a study group, with 3 of them attending coaching at QUT on Saturdays, & 2 others the only math C coaching session anyone could find anywhere, on the Gold Coast on Wednesday nights. They then shared the results

Yes it helps if parents care enough, & know enough to see what is needed. A couple of these kids parents did not, but with the groups help, both made the physiotherapy courses they wanted.

I have no sympathy for those kids not prepared to put in the work to beat the system. Some people are meant to be ditch diggers, & IQ has nothing to do with it.