Think many adults have this assumption that one's worth is directly proportional to the magnitude of one's suffering. They're always going on and on about the unpleasant things they had to do in their youth, and complaining about the many advantages in our lives.

While I do feel sorry for their plight, i'm no longer in lower secondary where naive students write long touching essays on the nobility of our ancestors (how noble is one who keeps pettily harping on oneself anyway?). It's not our fault that we're so lucky. Having advantages is not a sin.

By the way, i think that there're many western-minded people (including my subconscious self) who think that one's value is proportional to how different one is. You see, if one is different, one is actually thinking for oneself, which in turn means that one is living life consciously, instead of going through it like an insentient android. Sentience is what that gives human beings value; it's what that distinguishes us from animals and inanimate objects.

But of course, as a christian, i know that all humans are of equal value. There's a difference though, between knowing it in the mind and in the heart.