Victim Mentality

People can feel trapped in their own circumstances. At the mercy of some malevolent force, or simply on the unlucky side of Fortuna‘s wheel, it is not at all uncommon for certain individuals to believe that their entire lives are subject to the vicissitudes of fate. Breaking free of this mental prison is essential towards regaining self-determination.

 

 

Ever since our earliest years, we have been cycled through the government indoctrination centers (which are erroneously referred to as “public schools”) to believe in all sorts of nonsense; the police serve the people, legislators are popularly elected, and the free market requires governmental regulation (to name just a few). Alongside all of this is the sense given to you that somehow, your life is not your own, it is a type of inescapable bubble that is run by someone, or something, else. Such learned helplessness is the eventual outcome of having to cope with living within an artificially regimented lifestyle during our early formative years.

The Madison Avenue social engineers (the so-called “public relations” advertisement wizards) unrelentingly convey the notion that we are not intrinsically worthy or otherwise just disastrously inept. For instance, just watch any men’s hygiene, cereal, or automobile advert, and it will be conveyed to you that you need some corporation’s product in order to “better yourself.” That, without them, you are nothing. By understanding also the predictive programming elements in films and television shows, you can decipher the values they are attempting to have you internalize as a way of life. Such devious mechanizations are all aimed at creating an artificial dependence on the Establishment.

Is it really any surprise why the victim mentality is so pervasive in the United Socialist States of America as it is? Particularly with the advent of the welfare State, it has become endemic to expect something for nothing… free lunches, as it were. Internet radio hosts have told me that only the government has pulled people out of poverty, not private industry; only the welfare State can help the destitute, the unwed single mothers, and the ill, not friendly societies. Even when I told them that the exact opposite is true and where they can start verifying the data for themselves, my claims were quickly (albeit politely) dismissed as not being “practical” in this day and age.

Some political dissidents have chosen to focus on child-rearing practices. Considering the downward spiral of parental standards over the last several decades, these dissidents act on the presumption that by improving relations between parents and children (particularly through non-violent means, such as the concept of “peaceful parenting”), the eventual long-term ramifications would actually end up striking at the root of the many multifaceted problems we face. Unfortunately, I have noticed that in the attempt to analyze the causes of child abuse, these very same dissidents use themselves as their own qualitative case studies. While this is not bad in and of itself, it does have the tendency of encouraging others to complain about how awful their parents were, thus perpetuating the victim mentality (albeit unintentionally).

At the end of the day, the victim mentality robs us of our individual sense of responsibility for our own lives. This notion that somehow you are entitled to goods and services, or even love and affection from your fellow man, is utterly repugnant to any concept of freedom. Love, like money, has its own currency and its own standard of value; neither are subject to the arbitrary whims of the unearned. The decision to invest or to love is inherently rooted in the premise that something (or someone) has earned a level of respect and admiration, otherwise it (or they) would not be valued. Of course, not everything (or everyone) is valued by people in the same way, and that is perfectly alright, because they are not supposed to be; this is the variability of free will in action as expressed by subjective preferences.

You, and you alone, have the ability to choose whether to become a self-serving, unjustified product of all of “society’s” ills, or to grow up and act as a responsible adult. So what if your childhood was genuinely crappy? I didn’t choose my parents but I worked around them as best as I could. So what if your education was thinly veiled propaganda? Either become an autodidactic, find a mentor you can apprentice under, or get yourself into an affordable private school that teaches the trivium (alternatively, if you have halfway decent parents, homeschooling becomes an option). So what if the corporate advertisements make you feel insecure and weak? You can protect your dignity by not watching television. So what if the parasitical welfare State is enticing you with handouts that you happen to qualify for? Either make a detailed accounting of whose money it really is and return it to them as soon as you are able, or better yet, improve your vocabulary and skills sets so you can create your own job and eventually become financially independent of both the corporations and the State.

Taking the virtue of responsibility seriously is the only reliable way of defeating the victim mentality. Only you bear the consequences (good, bad, and indifferent) of your actions. Whenever you don’t have the liberty of performing some act, if you still retain the practical ability to do so and are willing to face the negative consequences (if there are any from violating mala prohibita), then you are still accepting responsibility for that act. No claim of alleged “victimhood” provides the moral basis for any sort of entitlement, whether it be financial or emotional. Such an understanding on the nature of these truths provides us with the logical rationale for breaking away from the tyranny of the victim mentality.