Victimhood Mentality + Culture; or Gratitude for Being Born in the USA? Take Responsibility for Life
Video: Victimhood Mentality + Culture; or Gratitude for Being Born in the USA? Take Responsibility for Life
People are increasingly choosing to wrap themselves in the dark shroud of victimhood, rather than looking upwards and celebrating the rising sun of humanity.
Rapid technological innovation has catapulted our quality of life into the stratosphere.
People live longer, healthier lives, as diseases that once decimated populations have been largely eradicated by vaccines and growing measures of prevention.
With increased crop yields, few on the planet go hungry.
Information technology has torn down barriers to education and access to the marketplace with gusto. Literally at your fingertips are free classes taught by Ivy League professors, available 24 hours a day on YouTube and Khan Academy. Small entrepreneurs from distant lands are able to sell their wares on Etsy or Ebay,
Global levels of extreme poverty have been reduced beyond the UN’s most optimistic projections.
And at the epi-center of these tremors shifting the landscape of humanity’s well being has been America, its siren song of freedom and opportunity drawing humans from all over the globe, and despite whatever perceived missteps, this beacon of hope still shines brightly in the eyes of the world.
America- home of the free, land of the brave.
Yet everyday, citizens of the world’s richest and most privileged country rail against it; complaining of “hate speech”- now defined by anything which remotely counters leftist ideological orthodoxy, racism and systemic oppression- which has apparently grown in virulence since slavery and Jim Crowe reigned over the South, and income inequality- an ever widening gap deemed “unfair and patriarchal.”
Neo-marxists recruit the impressionable to wage war against Western values by sowing the seeds of disdain and resentment, desiring to strip bare our hard fought freedoms and prosperity.
Sadly, those advocating for mutiny have a myopic view, failing to recognize that they are the economic elite of the world.
You need to make $32,400 to be in the TOP 1% of the global population. That’s right, the “lowly paid” schoolteacher is in the 1%. A registered nurse, easily 1%. Is it fair to state that virtually any American could hit that lofty percentile with a modicum of effort?
If you live in the USA, you are the 1%. It’s not “white privilege,” it’s American privilege.
And using the same resentful Neo-Marxist logic, should the rest of the world not unite against you? As part of the global elite, shouldn’t you be taxed and the money redistributed to the truly impoverished? Of course, most of these advocates who demand the resources of others, have little desire to give away their own wealth to the less fortunate.
packed cattle car full of garment workers in Cambodia –
I took these photos |
In fairness, the plights of Cambodians transported to and from garment factories in cattle trucks where they earn $100 a month, the Mongolian family selling nuts on the side of one of the country’s few paved roads to somehow make ends meet, the African family who has to walk miles each day for water, have never been considered by such people, because they aren’t even cognizant of their existence.
Mongolian family selling nuts along the side of the road-
hard way to make a living in a country where no one has any money |
Meanwhile politicians like Elizabeth Warren willfully inject the poisonous narrative of victimhood into the hearts and minds of Americans. She’ll explain that all your troubles are the result of large corporations tilting the game in their favor, that the playing field isn’t level, as well as invoking the divisive politics of race.
Warren and her ilk are like the companions on a life boat at sea railing against the injustice of our ship sinking, discouraging the act of rowing because, “You won’t get anywhere, the current is systemic and against us. We have no hope, but if you elect me I’ll solve our ills by draining the ocean.”
Video: Elizabeth Warren promoting victimhood, and few thoughts on it
Meanwhile the appropriate action is to row, because even if you never make it to shore, at least you took action to save yourself, rather than being paralyzed by the tales of your victimhood. Would you rather have your child row against the current of life and gain strength and skill, or sit idly by, drifting, waiting to be saved?
Which is more empowering, victimhood, or the ethos of personal responsibility, that you alone are captain of your ship?
If someone tried to teach my son he was helpless and at the mercy of circumstances beyond his control, I would consider it abuse. I couldn’t imagine a more debilitating, toxic lesson that if accepted by his unconscious (or conscious) mind that would negatively his long term success and joy in life.
People in the West live better than the kings and queens of history. No matter how much gold King Louis had stacked, he could never purchase a Southwest Airline ticket.
You have an entire movie studio in your smart phone. You can shoot, edit, and distribute videos on a magical piece of hardware at not only a fraction of the cost of what Steven Spielberg would have spent in the 1980’s, but at infinitely better quality.
So who cares that Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, or Elon Musk all have way way way more than you. They are the insane dreamers, driven by the incentives offered by capitalism, who work 24 hours a day to deliver packages to your doorstep in hours, who create software that increases the productivity of the world, that electrify the automobile industry, and then use their fortunes to eradicate infectious diseases, or plot to send ships into space to mine asteroids so we don’t have to pollute the earth digging for minerals, all of which, by virtue of Adam Smith’s invisible hand, makes all our lives better.
The world might not be perfect, everyone’s dealt with tragedy or injustice at one time or another, but a slight redirection of focus clearly reveals that we live in vastly superior circumstances than any of our ancestors, and what’s more, our collective outlook improves daily.
What do grievance, jealousy, and victimhood bring us? Be thankful for our amazing lives and opportunities. Be grateful for the sheer luck of being born in the present day West, and all the privilege that confers.
Besides, not only does gratitude feel better, it’s a much better look.
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