Is choosing to be a victim a taboo subject?
by Jon Rappoport
August 15, 2017
Some people apparently think there are no fake victims, only real ones.
They believe that if all the oppression in the world were magically lifted tomorrow, people would suddenly become independent.
This is not my conclusion.
When I went to junior high school (it wasn’t “middle school” then and “junior” wasn’t considered a dangerous pejorative that could ruin young minds), the concept of a victim, as we use it now, didn’t exist.
Can you imagine it? There was no special ed. There were no federal funds paid out for each “specially abled” child. No one used the word “victim.” There was no such thing as ADHD. There was no such thing as a clinically depressed child. There were no shrinks hovering around ready to make diagnoses and dispense drugs.
This junior high had a cross-section of kids from different economic and ethnic backgrounds.
Did cruel things occasionally happen? Were there a few bullies? Yes. Was it paradise every day? No. Were there injustices? Yes. But all in all, it was a good school. Kids learned. Most of the teachers were fair and just.
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, more learning took place in that school than in a comparable school today. It wasn’t even close, by any reasonable standard of measurement, like literacy.
And in terms of the kids feeling safe and free (as free as anyone can be in a school), again it was no contest. Things were better then than they are now.
The word victim was never used. Kids didn’t wear victimhood like a badge. It didn’t take a village. We didn’t have the incomparable advantage of knowing we were all on Spaceship Earth, and yet we did well.
We somehow managed to struggle through without being taught about sex in the classroom. No one told us about the need to respect every point of view. In fact, there was no social training at all. We never sat around in class and had group discussions with the teacher.
We all knew the principal was an idiot. We knew who the bad teachers were and who the good teachers were.
No one promoted “sharing and caring.” No one.
By today’s standards, we were living in the Stone Age. Yet, we got through it. We weren’t ever treated as victims, and we didn’t know what victims were. Kids understood they either succeeded or failed. If they failed, they didn’t make it to the next grade. It was stark and simple. No one objected.
Yes, in some respects, school was a real pain in the neck, but we bit the bullet and kept on going.
If someone from the future had showed up and told us about ADHD and what it was, and what the drugs were, we would have called him crazy. We would have laughed him into oblivion.
Flash forward 60 years…
“Oh, but now there are so many more distractions. TV, computers, the Internet, cell phones. And drugs, porn, divorced parents, guns, junk food, advertising. Kids today need more help. They need more caring adults.”
No, actually, kids need schools where the rules are simple and stark. You learn or you don’t learn. You behave or you don’t behave. You aren’t a victim.
Over the last 60 years, a culture of victimhood has become a major industry. This culture, as it turns out, doesn’t really solve very much at all. It engenders more problems. It invents endless excuses. It piles up baloney to the level of every kid’s eyes. It gives a kid an out.
The people who promote victimhood make their living by promoting victimhood. That’s the clue. They’re hustlers.
There are a few fuzzy boundaries when you differentiate between a real victim and a phony one. It isn’t perfect. Nothing is. There is no system that can protect everybody. But, all in all, you’re far better off unloading the victim culture than you are expanding it.
And expanding it is what happens when the pros and hustlers take over. They’re liars right down to their shoes.
Many parents are complicit. They’re looking for an out, too. They want to have outside people make sure their kids are all right.
The federal government and its allies take this point of view: if you don’t go along with the culture of victimhood, you’re a monkey wrench in the machinery of progress. You’re standing up for yourself.
Once upon a time, self-reliance was a given. In order for it to be a given, there had to be a concomitant principle: if you don’t rely on yourself, you’re going to be in trouble. The two ideas go together.
People accepted this.
You pass your courses or you fail and repeat the grade.
That wasn’t considered an onerous burden. It was a fact of life.
Then, there was a change. “I” was replaced by “we.” That was the “new idea.” It sounded good. It sounded interesting. It sounded hopeful.
But it was a con. The “we” was fake. It wasn’t about cooperation in a family or in a real community. It was high-flying and political and vague.
It was an out. It was a way to choose victimhood. In fact, it became, over time, a way for voluntary victims to bond with one another. “We’re in bad shape, and we demand help.”
And help arrived. It arrived, along many fronts, in the form of the removal of the need to be a strong individual.
That was the key in the lock that opened the door, so the old culture of self-reliance could flow into the sea and disappear.
“But there are real victims!” people say. Of course there are. Since there are oppressors, there are victims. But I’m not talking about that. I’m not talking about that at all. I’m talking about choice, about choosing to enter the dim realm of the put-upon.
And if you don’t think many, many people have made that choice, you’re not watching.
When I was in ninth grade, my teacher told us what deus ex machina meant. God from the machine. It was a dramatic device through which, in a play, the characters were rescued from their terrible troubles, at the last minute, from Above. It was a cheap trick.
Well, there are millions of people who, after choosing victimhood, have come to believe in deus ex machina. One way or another, the cavalry will come over the hill. They count on this. The cosmic lottery ticket will turn up.
Just wait long enough, and the payoff will appear.
This has NOTHING to do with cooperation in small groups or families. It has everything to do with a gathering malaise.
This whole culture is designed to provide people with a way to fall back on their weakest instincts. This culture becomes more violent and vicious, because it encourages massive self-esteem based on nothing.
There is a ready excuse for every shortfall, an excuse for every shortcoming and every crime—with parasitic intellectuals inventing newer and newer reasons to exonerate all behaviors everywhere, under the flag of tolerance and understanding and even freedom.
Do we need liberation from actual oppressive criminals and their systems? Of course.
Do we need liberation from people who surrender themselves to victimhood?
More than ever.
(To read about Jon’s mega-collection, The Matrix Revealed, click here.)
Jon Rappoport
The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.
Perfect!!!
More victims=more government power.
Victims will need help in the form of social assistance.
Victims will vote for whichever wing of the Uniparty that promises the most benefits.
The lowest common denominator equality über alles hive mind groupthink utopia means the end of the indispensable manifest destiny exceptionalism.
Personally I hate it because it actually minimizes in effect people who have suffered through ACTUAL trauma, as in a parent punching and kicking a kid, sexual abuse etc.
Now just saying the wrong word is enough to spark more outrage than something that is actual visible fact, as in calling people a racial epithet sparks more outrage that a child whose parent put cigarettes out on their arm.
The country has lost it’s collective mind…and psychiatry and psychology have a hell of a lot to do with it.
The other cause of the malaise is in fact THE MEDIA ITSELF, especially television.
It puts one in an extreme passive state where r opinions are dictated to one. It propagates learned helplessness because the experts are supposed to do the thinking(add in the naïve assumption that they have your best interest at heart)
Enculcating a passive victim mentality probably has a something to do with TV viewing.
My husband and i spent a large part of our lives without TV, as we are both avid readers., but we got a deal on a cable bundle, so got TV,then steaming and it got to be a habit..
It has not improved out lives one bit…
We did an experiment. We were not watching much TV to begin with, but we do have some favorite shows, mostly British, (Like Black Adder, Monarch of the Glen)and some American Comedy back when it used to actually be funny, that we watch .We limited it to one show a night or none at all for a week. The difference was astounding…more energy, more vitality, more self determinism..it was striking.
One of the main problems with visual media, like movies, television, youtube etc IS THAT IT DIRECTLY IMPACTS YOUR IMAGINATION. You are putting images in that are someone else’s.
As has been pointed out be Jerry Mander, if you read a book, you would be using your imagination to create the characters- but once you see the movie, those images usurp your own, and it is almost impossible to undo.
In effect the imagination goes dormant, and the person loses a large part of their power.
Wouldn’t this make someone more open to feeling like a victim?
The powerlessness , the hopelessness, the total lack of power?
if you read a book, you would be using your imagination to create the characters- but once you see the movie, those images usurp your own, and it is almost impossible to undo.
In effect the imagination goes dormant, and the person loses a large part of their power.(Bunny)
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So true! This is why, I prefer radio shows, to television.
I only watch television when I go to bed. I program it to stop in 90 minutes. I watch it with my eyes closed in my dark bedroom and imagine the scene of action. and then, I fall asleep..
Oh, Jon, this was wonderful. You know, I wrote psychology article on this, sort of.
“Self Pity, Success & Failure” at http://truth1.org/pity.htm
Here is how I see victimhood. Some people make excuses for every little shortcoming they have. They hate personal self-responsibility. “Its not my fault!” “I am a victim” I call it self pity.
“Its only me, no one else knows what I go thru. I have suffered more than anyone else. I am alone and unique in my experience and I deserve more!”
If they don’t get it, then they steal it or rape. They become treacherous and the ends justifies the means. This all boils down to self-pity and the idea that only they have ever suffered. the Truth1 is that everyone has done plenty of suffering. Neither fate nor the devil is prejudiced. They dish it out to all. They don’t want anyone feeling left out, ya know.
In reality, this syndrome is really a superiority complex. “I am alone and unique, and know better than anyone else what suffering is. I should be running things”
Every major despot has this syndrome. They want revenge. They want to make the world pay. And who do they turn to for help? Come on! you know the answer! Lenin called them useful idiots. I’ll also add deluded and clueless.
Those at the bottom want compensation for their many miseries, the biggest of which was lousy parents not fulfilling they instinctive needs when those needed to be supplied. Their compensation is, well, money, if they can get it. But its more. They want blood. They really do hate deeply. They want to kill as many as they can. They are jealous and selfish by nature. And they have been so wronged. After all, if you are going to rape, pillage and kill like the USSR did in Germany under Stalin, you need lot of injustice to justify your huge hate and desire to indiscriminately and plentifully kill.
This is the well from which Marxism and Communism draw their support for the worst imaginable. Find the dregs of society and tell them how abused they are and horrible they have been treated. It works every time! It never fails!
But her is the ironic justice of it all. After the Commies (the left) get power, the 1st thing they do is kill off all the useful idiots as the idiots are guaranteed to be outraged when they do not get promoted and recognized for their obvious greatness. Oh yes, they think they are geniuses and belong right up their at the top with everyone else. So the bosses kill them off in labor camps, executions and more wars.
My point? The left will get their way sooner or later. They too deluded to ever see the truth; that they are nothing special and no one owes them a damn thing. Self-pity and over-inflated egos and delusions of grandeur. But the ultimate revenge of the millions murdered is that they will see the useful idiots get what they deserve for making excuses and embracing victim-hood.
So live it up you stupid leftists. You day draws nearl. Your leaders will be the ones to eat you alive. They hate you more than us. But they need you because you are stupid and will go along with any stupid thing, like senseless killing or concentration camps. Cheers all!
To truth1
Great comment! You hit the nail on the head.
Have they asked themselves what happens next, after they are achieving their goals of complete victimhood police state violent culture? This sick culture of venerating the common denominator is out of control. It took place rapidly in the last 20 or 30 years, but the communists have been working on this a lot longer than that.
There are some amazing quotes out there from the 1800 s even and before talking about this scenario and how they were going to make this happen. Albert pike is just one of them.
I remember those days. We were not bused to school, We were walking to school at 8 o’clock in the morning, also at lunch time, where our mother had cooked us a good meal, and walking back at school till 4 o’clock in the afternoon every day, whether is was cold, hot, rainy or windy.
We loved it. These were the good old days.
We had two recreation pauses, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We could go outside and play in the big yard where there was all sorts of things to do: Skating, Tennis, sliding, etc.
The schools at that time were unisex. One school for the girls, and one school for the boys in a different neighborhood.
As far as the teaching is concerned, it was good. My preference went to the History, Geography, Literature. arts and logics.
Quebec, I think separate schools for boy and girls was and is a great idea. Yeah, we were far less babied. We were fortunate to live in those times. I pity the children of now. What a nightmare we have now.
i grew up in NYC. as a third and fourth grader i would walk home with my friends about a mile by ourselves after school thru the botanical gardens, and sometimes stop and get an ice cream. we even walked to the pizza place near the school a couple of times at lunch. kids often went home for lunch on their own walking and came back after lunch, no big deal.
My parents would play tennis at the park and i would watch my younger brother who was 4, we would ride our bikes and climb trees while they played and I was only 7 or 8.
Everyone played outside all day happily without adults and all the kids watched out for each other. No way a stranger could have come and stole a kid.
What has changed>? the lowest common denominator has become a majority and ruined our world.
Why is it not “safe” anymore? Why would the people my age raise such disgraceful children who have raised even worse children and there is no way i would ever live in the city, any city, again. It makes me furious what they have done to my town, NYC. the same thing they have done to many towns. Who is they and i still don’t understand this insanity, it defies logic.
Ultima ratio Regum:
Where the State exists,
the law does not.
— Thomas Jefferson
One of the saddest things of history
Is when we have been bamboozled
If we have been bamboozled
long enough
We tend to reject the evidence of the bamboozle
The Bamboozle has captured us
And the Bamboozle becomes the reality
It is too painful to acknowledge
That we have been so credulous
— Carl Sagan
Those who would give up Essential Liberty
to purchase a little Temporary Safety,
deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Ben Franklin
When I was in grade school, we had a principal, Mr. Quimby. He had a small boxing ring in the basement. One time when I got into a schoolyard fight, Mr. Quimby brought us both into the basement to settle our argument with gloves. They were so big, we couldn’t hurt each other. The fight ended when someone fell down. If a principal tried that today, they would jail him for life.
I lived on a bike before helmets were invented. Dodge ball was a favorite game in Boys Club. In Boy Scouts,we had what was close to survival training. Played tackle football without helmets.
When I look back on those days, they were valuable experiences. Risk taking can only be learned by taking risks. I have the scars to prove it.
Your principal, Mr Quimby was one smart cookie!
I think I knew you in Junior High 🙂 Perfect!
More tales from the frontline of social engineering (not entirely relevant to the article but I didn’t know where else to post). Although it’s related to the relentless, ongoing societal drive to finally acknowledge our terribly enfeebled states of being, y’know, men and women — and empower the shit out of us all.
The new documentary which aired on the BBC last night, “No More Boys and Girls: Can Our Kids Go Gender Free?”, shows what happens when a class goes ‘gender neutral’ for a term.
Lest we worry that maybe this is not such a wonderful new development, presenter Dr Javid Abdelmoneim is on hand to soothe our irrational fears about an experiment conducted by the BBC — and presented by a doctor — on gender neutrality:
“One, this is absolutely not about gender identity. Two, in no way could you imagine anyone ever trying to steer children in a way that’s harmful. We’re talking about the BBC. I’m a Doctor. Their parents and teachers were involved.”
Quite. In no way could you imagine any of those parties ever doing harm.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/happened-primary-school-went-gender-neutral/