Bootstraps

I hate the line, "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps." When you first hear it, you have to respect it. After all, It's true. Hard work begets success, no? So, it's got roots in the genuinely respectable concept of hard work, mistakes, and toil to achieve a goal. But over time, I suspect that the line has become more of a platitude, a crutch in a particular argument, rather than anything truly meaningful or helpful. The "You didn't work as hard as me because you haven't achieved the same status as me," or "You should pull harder on your bootstraps," arguments are really great ways for the purveyors of those arguments to dismiss indefinitely the possibility that the recipient in question perhaps had to work just as hard if not harder to achieve a lesser status. After all, most of those I hear making that argument vehemently oppose the mere mention of the word "privilege" in the context of socioeconomic class. And not only do those arguments dismiss the idea of privilege, they also implicitly absolve the person making the argument of any personal feelings of obligation to help or guilt that might otherwise arise from their lack thereof. In other words, "You didn't work as hard as me, so I am under no pressure to help you achieve anything you don't deserve. Work harder and you'll get to where I am eventually."

Then, of course, we're left with dismissing the concept of socioeconomic privilege but introducing that of any individual being deserving of anything at all. Who gets to mete out those judgments? In addition, why does the judge deserve that position? What a philosophical mess. I'm sure someone has thought of it and written about it already but I wouldn't know where to look for an answer.