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Pushing Past Privileging Systems
Within this current cultural moment, there are a lot of discussions around the concept of privilege and privileging systems. Whether it is theories explaining white privilege or the possibilities that come from pretty privilege, many people believe in the importance of creating a world which no longer creates these hegemonic privileging systems. However, there are many theories which demonstrate that deconstructing the world is actually antithetical to normative models of human understanding.
For most individuals, there is a need or compulsion to explain the world in terms of binaries. With these binaries also comes opposition, in that each pair privileges one part over the other. Therefore, we live in a world in which Good is privileged over Evil, the rational Mind is expected to control the sensual Body, and our internal drives are characterized as a desire for the finality of Death, the throes of Eros and therefore the possibility of Life.
So, even if we want to create a world of equality, within a society, the subjective nature of being constantly strives to create an understanding of the world that privileges one thing over the other. Even as philosophical thought has moved into the realm of Post-Structuralism and Deconstruction there is still a sense that the world is being viewed through a set of glasses with black and white lenses.
