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MAN ABOUT LONDON |
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VICTIMS |
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KIDS WHO ROB OTHER KIDS!  "Gimme all your money, you dumb victims! Then go apply for group therapy!" |
Our western society goes
all ga-ga over victims
of TheColumnists.com
We’re unfortunate in England to get an American TV program called "The Jerry Springer Show." I’m sure it’s well-produced, and enormously successful. But it’s terrible--like cock fighting is terrible.
This guy Springer (who I understand is English by birth, so don’t think I’m being anti- American here) pumps people up into a fit of anger, hostility and aggression, and then sets them at one another. Before you know it, the whole audience is screaming abuse, each filled with hate, contempt and bitterness.
Does it make good telly? Without doubt. Is it bad for us? Absolutely.
"The Jerry Springer Show" and all the other ones just like it, are feeding the culture of the victim. It’s a culture that’s enormously prevalent in the West, and one that’s doing huge harm. Everyone’s got to be a victim. If you’re not a victim you’re undeserving and unworthy.
Some people can check a victim box without bother. If you come from a broken home, were abused as a child, or have an on-going illness, you’re an A-rated victim. If you have to point to being of an ethnic minority or of a socially-disadvantaged class, then you’re only B-rated. Others have to be a bit more creative, and come in with a C-rating. They have relationship problems, issues with their boss, or were bullied at school.
Then there are people like me--the minority it seems--who can’t point to anything which would make them a victim at all. Or if they could they wouldn’t admit it. Darn, it’s tough. Means someone else has always got the moral high ground.
And victims adore the moral high ground. They just love telling their hard-luck stories. They revel in their disadvantage and wallow in the way life has treated them. Jerry laps it up, of course. He cocks his head, looks all sympathetic and draws out great spoonfuls of self-pity. And each time his program appears, he encourages millions of viewers to pity themselves too. It’s self-indulgence for free.
There has to be a reason for all this victim stuff. Why do people enjoy being drawn into it? I’m not much of a psychologist, but I think it gives them an excuse. It’s comfortable. If you’re miserable, you can point to your victimisation and find the reason. It means you can wallow in heroic failure, and feel no need to drag yourself out.
The more Jerry and his ilk encourage such behavior, the more it’s catching on in society as a whole. The British government recently agreed to pay for the psychological testing of police officers and traffic wardens. They’re to be given regular “stress checks,” and encouraged to “talk about their feelings.” Private companies are at it too. One major British company is preparing to spend no less than $2 million on counselling sessions for employees it’s just sacked.
Of course sacked employees are going to feel sorry for themselves if they’re given counselling sessions. But what they need to do is to get up, dust themselves down, and get on with life. Talking about how badly they’ve been treated doesn’t help anyone.
But the culture of the victim has a more sinister consequence too. It polarizes us. If women are victims, it’s because of men. If blacks are victims, it’s because of whites. If the disabled are victims, it’s because of the able-bodied. Blame leads to a fragmented society that’s at war with itself. And that means that society is weakened, just like a coiled spring is weakened if you pull it too far.
But the victims don’t see it this way. They’re too busy wallowing, and hating the perceived perpetrators. Here’s an example: I was walking along by the River Thames near my apartment the other day, and three guys were walking towards me. As they did so, I began to smell something quite delicious--almost my favorite smell in the whole world. It was the smell of newly wrapped fish and chips. I think fish and chips would be my chosen last meal if I were on death row. If it wasn’t so full of fat and grease, I’d eat the stuff every day. Gorgeous.
Anyway, as these guys approached me, I became transfixed by this lovely smell, and realized that it came from a bag that one of them was carrying. So as they passed by I glanced at the bag carrying the fish and chips, and looked longingly. Innocent enough you would have thought.
But oh, no.
Seeing my glance, one of them launched into a tirade: “Don’t f******g look at my bag like that you f******g git! Don’t f******g think that it’s f******g stolen just ‘coz I’m black!”
So he was black. It hadn’t occurred to me that he was black until that moment. I mean you don’t consciously think that someone you pass in the street is anything do you? You don’t go past a child and think “there goes a child,” or past a pensioner and think “ooh, there’s a pensioner.” You just don’t consciously register it. And it certainly didn’t occur to me that he’s stolen his fish and chips.
Consider this incident as a microcosm of the bigger picture, which after all is made up of hundreds of thousands of similar incidents every day. It no doubt served to further convince this guy that white people are suspicious of black people. It furthered the “them against us” culture, and therefore bolstered the polarization of society into distinct groups. What’s more, it makes him more likely to misinterpret the next white guy that he passes in the street. It’s the snowball effect at work.
And what about me, and my future reactions? Will I be more likely to feel threatened by a group of black guys walking towards me? Will I start to consciously register their color? Will this, and all the other similar incidents happening every day, serve to widen the divisions in society?
That’s the trouble with the culture of the victim. By encouraging everybody to think of reasons why they’re disadvantaged, we’re creating bitterness and hostility where it wouldn’t otherwise exist.
It’s all so unnecessary, because disadvantage is relative, not absolute. My parents’ generation lived through a world war. My parents’ earliest memories are of rushing down to air-raid shelters at the bottom of the gardens, because bombs were dropping. That’s real trauma, especially when you’re four years old. But did the government offer counselling to millions of people in 1940? Of course not. People knew they had to get on with life, and so they did. And I’ve never once heard my parents complaining that they are psychologically scarred by the experience, though no doubt they could become so if given enough counselling.
Those of us living in the West have a pretty privileged life, even if some have advantages over others. And what’s putting it under threat is not just a few evil men who delight in flying airplanes into buildings. It’s also us, and the way we’re learning to hate each other.
I was horrified to learn that there were British citizens fighting against the Allies in Afghanistan and Iraq. Quite a few of them are at Guantanamo Bay as I write. But it really shouldn’t come as a surprise. By encouraging people to be victims, we encourage resentment, bitterness, hate and hostility. Those that have a grudge against sections of society will eventually turn on that society as a whole.
And that’s why the threat to society is not just from outside. It’s also from within. And so long as Jerry Springer and the rest encourage us all to feel victimised, that threat from within will be sustained.
Reversing the culture of bitterness and hostility will be a monumental achievement--it’s fairly ingrained. But we can make a start by ridding ourselves of the victim mentality. If fewer of us classed ourselves as victims--postively chose not to--then fewer of us would have cause to hate. And I defy anyone to tell me that less hate will make the world worse.
Jerry, it’s over to you.
©2003 by Robert Taylor. The illustrations are from IMSI's Master Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA.
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