The term “privilege” is often used to designate the
social advantages arbitrarily given to members of particular groups in a
particular society, advantages that are largely invisible to members of the
groups in question.
While the concept of privilege can certainly be
abused and misapplied (often by people with good intentions but poor thinking
skills), it also is useful for thinking about certain social issues. More
important for the subject of Thelema and Skepticism, the concept of privilege
can be useful in helping us see the unarticulated assumptions that underpin our
rational judgments. If the work of discovering the True Will is, as I have
argued on this blog, the work of identifying the ways in which the mind veils
reality from an individual, one of the most difficult veils to pierce are the
assumptions that often do not register themselves as conscious thoughts.
Read on for a discussion of privilege and its
application in Thelemic practice.