A people that values its privileges above its principles loses both | UPSC Mains Essay Preparation PDF Download

Introduction

A principle is a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behaviour or a chain of reasoning. The fundamental feature of principles is that they are discovered. On the other hand, concepts and procedures may be said to be invented; they are abstract.
However, the content quality of principles is par excellence in that they represent the truth in a significantly decisive way. Facts, on the other hand, can be misrepresented. While principles are applied in life situations, facts are learned and memorized. In comparison to principles, facts are trivial. Principles are generalized after an extended period of experience, whereas facts are particulars.
Procedures too do not enjoy the status of principles because they may or may not produce the desired goals or outcomes. Procedures fail to inform us on the way things work. Procedures are amenable to change and yet offer the desired results. Moreover, there can be several procedures leading to the same desired goal. When contrasted with principles, procedures stand on a lower pedestal because principles are the key to understanding the world around us. They explain why things happen and how they happen.
Therefore, principles are the most important content we can have. We only need to know how to apply them to new or emerging situations.

What Principles Are

Principles form the very foundation of all our knowledge. Our truths and beliefs are based on principles. They create values and guide our actions. Principles are rule sets, guidelines, or theories. Everything that we know can be reduced to a set of principles and laws.
Principles are present everywhere, from rules of society and ethics to those of philosophy and political science, from Newtonian and Einsteinian physics laws to those of biology and chemistry, and so on. Principles are  comprehensive enough to cover the entire spectrum of human consciousness, including all concepts and all sciences in the form of axioms, maxims, morals, concepts, legal guidelines, and official policies.
Broadly speaking, principles serve the purpose of suggesting the guidelines for application in situations. For instance, people can check the value and veracity of their actions based on a relevant principle before they act.
Man’s core beliefs are more or less based on well justified philosophical theories and moral principles. This saves much of human action based on ignorance. Acting without principles is as futile as trying to do mathematics without the number system. However, principles themselves are only guidelines as they do not say anything concrete or factual.

Privileges versus Principles

Privilege is an entirely different notion. Privileges have a lower priority than principles; unlike the latter's comprehensive reach, they are applicable to only a select few. For instance, all human beings have the right to basic things such as healthcare and education, health insurance, and company cars are privileges enjoyed by senior management.
Privilege is a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a select few based on birth, position, status, performance, or wealth. While principles are permanent, privileges can well be snatched away if principles are compromised. Privileges of birth enjoyed by the royalty and other wealthy elite continue only as long as these people live by principles. History is replete with examples of unscrupulous kings overthrown and stripped of their privileges. Similarly, revered scholars or teachers have often found themselves losing their privileged status overnight by some pathbreaking, iconoclastic discovery.
A people or a society that values its privileges above its principles stands to lose both. Privilege being exclusive and socially conferred straddles selfishness and immorality in violation of the principle of equality. The universal principle says that principles have the highest value while privileges have a lower value. A people that values its privileges clearly violates this principle. There numerous examples of this in history. The colonialism based on conquest was defended as white people’s privilege. In the end, they lost not just their colonies but also their moral authority based on principles. The Brahmins in India historically were privileged, but the times changed, and the notion of equality demanded that privileges be based on merit. It should be earned rather than demanded. The Brahmanical community lost their privilege as well as the principles on which they had commanded their privilege. In the United States, black people were treated poorly in times of apartheid, the institutionalised oppression based on skin colour prevailing in South Africa. They were labeled as lawbreakers and criminals. The whites were privileged. Their position of privilege was gone with the Civil Rights Movement spearheaded by Martin Luther King Jr.
It may be noted here that when privilege is not deserved but is based on demand or when privilege is given priority over principles, it is a distinct sign of the decay of those people or social strata which is identified as privileged. In fact, privilege is an outdated notion; it was prevalent in medieval societies and can find no place in modern times of equality. The reason privileges are given in modern societies is because the position holder is burdened with responsibilities that can be offset with privileges. This being the reason or rationale of privileges, it cannot be offered to a class as entitlement or right. When privileges begin to be confused with entitlement or right, it is a distinct sign of the loss of principles.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be said that there are several benefits of living by principles. It cannot be compared to privileges. Consistency with values imparts peace of mind and establishes a moral universe. On the other hand, prioritizing privileges above principles implies social degradation, loss of the moral universe, and an undesirable overload of stress. This situation leads to anarchy and the emergence of social rebels who question privileges that, in their opinion, are neither due nor deserved. Unquestioned privileges too graduate into immoral excesses and loss of virtues. When people begin to compromise with principles the society begins to fall into the trap of moral decadence.
When a person lives by principles, he becomes the torchbearer of society like Buddha and Gandhi. He creates a moral society with high standards of virtue. Gandhi did not demand privileges; his principles made him the Father of the nation. Quite unlike the leaders that followed him. Those who were in a position to frame rules on high principles for a welfare society constituted privileges by statutory provisions. Over a period of time, the privileges of the ruling elite would corrupt them beyond redemption, and an anti-incumbency wave pushed by new principles would sweep them away into political exile. With this, the principles they adhered to would also get buried in the sands of time. The political class that valued privileges over principles clearly lost both.