The New Victims Gather
In the age of liberal guilt, the victim holds the power. As a result, as we have discussed many times before, different groups compete—both domestically and in the wider world—for coveted public recognition as a put-upon, oppressed victim. Once the mantle is successfully won, it is maintained by an ideology of grievance, fed either a constant potent brew of truths, half-truths, fabrications and outright lies in order to feed both the rage of the victim class and the pity of respectable opinion in the West.
In all such instances, as with American Blacks so with the Palestinians, the victim group throws up an energetic leadership caste that knows the game and how it is to be played. Jesse Jackson’s and Yassir Arafat’s speeches and professed beliefs both follow the same general pattern (your suffering is all because of the evil plotting of the Whites/Jews) and cover up the same tired pattern of self-enrichment (both are multi-millionaires due to what is essentially extorted money) for a very good reason: they are both masters at stoking resentment and bringing forth a torrent of guilt. The latent racism of the liberal helps; to him, brown- and black-skinned people need his help and compassion if they are to stand a chance. As a result, they really can’t be held responsible for anything they do, and, if they do do something evil, it’s probably because of something uncompassionate white people either did or neglected to do.
This pattern in our wider Western political culture is now nearing close to 40 years of age and is starting to show it somewhat. It appears to us that every day more and more people are noticing this ideology’s frayed ends and irrational beliefs, starting to question liberal orthodoxy due to hard-won experience in real life. But the battle against the Cult of the Victim is far from over. Indeed, it is far from clear if such a battle could ever be fully won given the moral imperative and the historical narrative felt deeply by the liberal left in our civilization. It is far from certain that playing the victim card is a dead end. (For the leadership caste, anyway; for the victim class it is beyond clear that such an ideology is self-defeating and immensely psychologically crippling).
Which is why a number of South American and Arab leaders found themselves in Brasilia last week. The occasion, in case you missed it, was the first ever summit between the leaders of Latin America and the leaders of the Islamic world. There, the new leftist leaders of a newly democratic Latin American and the same old tired autocrats (save for the new President of Iraq, none enjoy any decree of legitimacy whatsoever) came together to find common ground and topics of mutual interest upon which they could cooperate.
Or so the press releases said. What actually happened was that two of the three of the most backwards and illiberal civilizational entities in the world met (the other, of course, being sub-Saharan Africa) and discovered—much to their mutual delight—that none, absolutely none, of their problems have anything to do with them. No, of course not.
The problem is not that both suffer from an exceptionally rigid political/cultural heritage that is marked through with arbitrary power, the exclusion and marginalization of women, excessive and obsessive racism, and a family/clan/tribe economic organization that retards the most basic development. You may think those things are relevant, but you’d be wrong.
The real problem, as always, are the Americans and the Jews. (That’s just what Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini thought, too. Isn’t it remarkable how great minds think alike?)
The summit meeting had its moments, like when the Chief Clown of Venezuela stopped spreading scare stories about his imminent assassination at the hands of the all-powerful C.I.A. (only in Latin American and at Indymedia is the C.I.A. thought to be effective) stood up to lecture the President of Iraq about the immorality of the U.S. war and occupation of that country, or when the entire Argentine delegation left early having tired of the veiled insults of their Brazilian hosts.
But for sheer idiocy and victimology at its best, nothing beats the summit’s closing declaration. The entire text can be accessed and read here, but we offer a sample as follows for two reasons. First, there just isn’t enough humor on this blog. Second, because, from time to time in the dead of night, usually after we’ve read the day’s collection of leftist hate mail (keep those cards and letters coming, kids!) we sit up straight in bed and wonder: are we on the right track? Is Conservatism really an intellectually defensible stance in today’s world? Perhaps we’re missing something in the leftist critique? Perhaps there is something to be gleaned, to be learned from their positions? Maybe, just maybe, we are wrong about the basics and, therefore, wrong about the particulars as a matter of course?
And then we read declarations of professional victims like these and it’s as if clear bright morning has dawned. Don’t believe us? Read for yourself! The parties to the declaration:
Express deep concern with regard to unilateral sanctions imposed on Syria by the government of the United States of America and consider that the so-called Syria Accountability Act violates principles of International Law and constitutes a transgression against the objectives and principles of the United Nations thereby establishing a serious precedent as regards dealing with independent states.
There’s that old “International Law” again, which apparently becomes law if a group of anti-Americans decide they really, really don’t like a sovereign decision we’ve made about who we will trade with and why. By the way, where is the parliament that drafts this stuff? Can we vote? Petition? Testify? Protest?
Affirm the territorial integrity of Sudan and unity of its people and call upon all concerned parties to support efforts towards realizing comprehensive peace, reconstruction and development in that country; and welcome the steps taken by the Sudanese Government in facilitating international assistance to the humanitarian crisis in Darfour and express their keen interest that the Arab League and the African Union undertake in this respect.
We think what they mean by welcoming “the steps taken by the Sudanese Government in facilitation international assistance to the humanitarian crisis in Darfour” is “we are completely detached from reality and don’t really give a damn about genocide.” At least that’s what we think they meant to say.
The Heads of State and Government of South American and Arab countries call on the Argentine Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to resume negotiations in order to reach, as soon as possible, a peaceful, fair and lasting solution to the sovereignty dispute about the Malvinas Question, according to the relevant U.N. Resolutions.
Hey, if you’re calling it the “Malivinas Question,” we’re pretty sure we know where you guys are going with that one.
Reaffirm their refusal of foreign occupation and recognize the right of states and peoples to resist foreign occupation in accordance with the principles of international legality and in compliance with international humanitarian law.
Refresh our memory: is shooting girls for going to school in compliance with international humanitarian law or not?
Reaffirm the need for the materialization of the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, and for the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1515 (2003), and the establishment of the independent Palestinian State, based on the 1967 lines, living side by side with the State of Israel, and the withdrawal of Israel from all occupied Arab territories to the lines of 4th of June 1967, and the dismantling of the Settlements including those in East Jerusalem. They duly take into account the advisory opinion rendered on 9th July 2004 by the International Court of Justice concerning the "Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory", and call upon all parties concerned to comply with the said advisory opinion.
Sure. Go back to the indefensible borders so they can try a fifth time to drive the Jews into the sea. And, while you’re at it, take down the wall so that more dancing teenagers in Tel Aviv and little children eating pizza at Sbarro’s can be blown to bits. Reasonable suggestion.
Ah, to sleep the sleep of the just and the well-contented!
In all such instances, as with American Blacks so with the Palestinians, the victim group throws up an energetic leadership caste that knows the game and how it is to be played. Jesse Jackson’s and Yassir Arafat’s speeches and professed beliefs both follow the same general pattern (your suffering is all because of the evil plotting of the Whites/Jews) and cover up the same tired pattern of self-enrichment (both are multi-millionaires due to what is essentially extorted money) for a very good reason: they are both masters at stoking resentment and bringing forth a torrent of guilt. The latent racism of the liberal helps; to him, brown- and black-skinned people need his help and compassion if they are to stand a chance. As a result, they really can’t be held responsible for anything they do, and, if they do do something evil, it’s probably because of something uncompassionate white people either did or neglected to do.
This pattern in our wider Western political culture is now nearing close to 40 years of age and is starting to show it somewhat. It appears to us that every day more and more people are noticing this ideology’s frayed ends and irrational beliefs, starting to question liberal orthodoxy due to hard-won experience in real life. But the battle against the Cult of the Victim is far from over. Indeed, it is far from clear if such a battle could ever be fully won given the moral imperative and the historical narrative felt deeply by the liberal left in our civilization. It is far from certain that playing the victim card is a dead end. (For the leadership caste, anyway; for the victim class it is beyond clear that such an ideology is self-defeating and immensely psychologically crippling).
Which is why a number of South American and Arab leaders found themselves in Brasilia last week. The occasion, in case you missed it, was the first ever summit between the leaders of Latin America and the leaders of the Islamic world. There, the new leftist leaders of a newly democratic Latin American and the same old tired autocrats (save for the new President of Iraq, none enjoy any decree of legitimacy whatsoever) came together to find common ground and topics of mutual interest upon which they could cooperate.
Or so the press releases said. What actually happened was that two of the three of the most backwards and illiberal civilizational entities in the world met (the other, of course, being sub-Saharan Africa) and discovered—much to their mutual delight—that none, absolutely none, of their problems have anything to do with them. No, of course not.
The problem is not that both suffer from an exceptionally rigid political/cultural heritage that is marked through with arbitrary power, the exclusion and marginalization of women, excessive and obsessive racism, and a family/clan/tribe economic organization that retards the most basic development. You may think those things are relevant, but you’d be wrong.
The real problem, as always, are the Americans and the Jews. (That’s just what Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini thought, too. Isn’t it remarkable how great minds think alike?)
The summit meeting had its moments, like when the Chief Clown of Venezuela stopped spreading scare stories about his imminent assassination at the hands of the all-powerful C.I.A. (only in Latin American and at Indymedia is the C.I.A. thought to be effective) stood up to lecture the President of Iraq about the immorality of the U.S. war and occupation of that country, or when the entire Argentine delegation left early having tired of the veiled insults of their Brazilian hosts.
But for sheer idiocy and victimology at its best, nothing beats the summit’s closing declaration. The entire text can be accessed and read here, but we offer a sample as follows for two reasons. First, there just isn’t enough humor on this blog. Second, because, from time to time in the dead of night, usually after we’ve read the day’s collection of leftist hate mail (keep those cards and letters coming, kids!) we sit up straight in bed and wonder: are we on the right track? Is Conservatism really an intellectually defensible stance in today’s world? Perhaps we’re missing something in the leftist critique? Perhaps there is something to be gleaned, to be learned from their positions? Maybe, just maybe, we are wrong about the basics and, therefore, wrong about the particulars as a matter of course?
And then we read declarations of professional victims like these and it’s as if clear bright morning has dawned. Don’t believe us? Read for yourself! The parties to the declaration:
Express deep concern with regard to unilateral sanctions imposed on Syria by the government of the United States of America and consider that the so-called Syria Accountability Act violates principles of International Law and constitutes a transgression against the objectives and principles of the United Nations thereby establishing a serious precedent as regards dealing with independent states.
There’s that old “International Law” again, which apparently becomes law if a group of anti-Americans decide they really, really don’t like a sovereign decision we’ve made about who we will trade with and why. By the way, where is the parliament that drafts this stuff? Can we vote? Petition? Testify? Protest?
Affirm the territorial integrity of Sudan and unity of its people and call upon all concerned parties to support efforts towards realizing comprehensive peace, reconstruction and development in that country; and welcome the steps taken by the Sudanese Government in facilitating international assistance to the humanitarian crisis in Darfour and express their keen interest that the Arab League and the African Union undertake in this respect.
We think what they mean by welcoming “the steps taken by the Sudanese Government in facilitation international assistance to the humanitarian crisis in Darfour” is “we are completely detached from reality and don’t really give a damn about genocide.” At least that’s what we think they meant to say.
The Heads of State and Government of South American and Arab countries call on the Argentine Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to resume negotiations in order to reach, as soon as possible, a peaceful, fair and lasting solution to the sovereignty dispute about the Malvinas Question, according to the relevant U.N. Resolutions.
Hey, if you’re calling it the “Malivinas Question,” we’re pretty sure we know where you guys are going with that one.
Reaffirm their refusal of foreign occupation and recognize the right of states and peoples to resist foreign occupation in accordance with the principles of international legality and in compliance with international humanitarian law.
Refresh our memory: is shooting girls for going to school in compliance with international humanitarian law or not?
Reaffirm the need for the materialization of the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, and for the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1515 (2003), and the establishment of the independent Palestinian State, based on the 1967 lines, living side by side with the State of Israel, and the withdrawal of Israel from all occupied Arab territories to the lines of 4th of June 1967, and the dismantling of the Settlements including those in East Jerusalem. They duly take into account the advisory opinion rendered on 9th July 2004 by the International Court of Justice concerning the "Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory", and call upon all parties concerned to comply with the said advisory opinion.
Sure. Go back to the indefensible borders so they can try a fifth time to drive the Jews into the sea. And, while you’re at it, take down the wall so that more dancing teenagers in Tel Aviv and little children eating pizza at Sbarro’s can be blown to bits. Reasonable suggestion.
Ah, to sleep the sleep of the just and the well-contented!
