Question

Why are issues such as competition and privilege so difficult to address?

Answer 1

Answer:

Individual society emphasizes the singular person and their problems, easing the sense of the community. This can create competition between people and create further tension. It also moves the focus from the problems of the group and the privileges of the group as a whole. People, therefore, will avoid talking about their privileges, feeling they are personally under attack, and denying they hold certain rights as part of the group, as well as having a better start in the competition because of these relations.

Explanation:

The society that praises individualism as the highest idea tends to create the sense that all people live separately and that their problems are individual problems. The sense of community disappears and is replaced by certain competition between individual people who wish to differentiate themselves from each and everyone else.

In this, the systematic problems of racism and sexism are reduced to individual problems that are seen as something coming from distinctive evil problems and evils. This way the problems of discrimination are not addressed properly. People who do come from privileged groups are encouraged to think they deserved their privilege by individual achievements and not because they belong to certain groups.

Privilege is hard to talk about because people who are coming from privileged groups do not see why this is part of the problem and tend to react as if they are personally under the attack. They refuse to see how their position might affect the oppressed groups and how their own community and status may create the problem.