MAKING VICTIMS, DESTROYING SOULS

 My New Found Victimhood

Recently I received an email from the university from which I retired and where I still mentor and teach students.  The email was seeking to “gather a list of First Gen faculty” who could be called upon to mentor “First Gen” students.

Being unfamiliar with the term “First Gen”, I did some research and learned that the U.S. Dept. of Education defines a First Gen or First Generation student as:

An individual, neither of whose parents completed a baccalaureate degree;

or

An individual who, prior to the age of 18, regularly resided with and received support from only one parent and whose supporting parent did not complete a baccalaureate degree.

or

An individual who, prior to the age of 18, did not regularly reside with or receive support from a natural or adoptive parent.

If your parent(s) and/or guardian(s) attended college but do not have a bachelor’s degree (i.e., did not graduate), you are considered to be first-generation.

This is the basic definition used by most colleges and universities, although some further explain that it does not matter about your siblings or any other family members.  That is, one only looks to the parent to determine if someone is First Gen.  Additionally, some schools expand their definition to include individuals whose parents, while having a degree, received that degree from an institution outside the United States.  The Dept. of Education tends to group its discussions of First Generation students with low income or otherwise disadvantaged students.

Think about this.  You could have highly successful parents who, for whatever reason, do not have a college degree, you might be a graduate of an outstanding prep school, have older siblings who are students or graduates of the finest colleges in the country and yet still qualify as a First Gen student and thus be qualified to receive whatever special benefits your college chooses to provide.

When I went to college, I did not consider myself disadvantaged.  I had parents who, though lacking college degrees, were well educated and encouraged education.  I went to good public schools with a high rate of graduates attending college.  My older siblings went to college before me.  Yet, lo and behold, I now discover that I had the disadvantage of being able to label myself as a First Generation student.  Wow.  I too can be a victim.  Actually, I found this thought quite offensive.

Realizing how ridiculous this is, I replied to the email and related my discovery that I am a First Gen.  I further explained that nonetheless, I would not be volunteering for the First Gen mentorship program.  Specifically, I stated, “In my humble opinion, such labels hurt rather than help individual initiative and success.  Obviously, I will not be volunteering as a First Gen mentor though, as you are well aware, I am always ready to help our students as individuals, regardless of whatever label our Woke world might want to place on them.”

I expected to get no response or simply a “thank you for your input” email.  But what I got was an email the total substance of which read “Was that really necessary?” to which I responded with one word:  Yes.   This interchange is not really relevant to the point of this essay, but it does serve to point out that those who are onboard with the Woke practice of labeling and creating political victimhoods are not inclined to want to have a discussion with someone of differing views; indeed, they don’t even want those views to be voiced.

Creating One’s Victimhood “narrative”

On the same day that the above took place I read an article revealing that Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy has fabricated his story of growing up poor, then becoming a successful entrepreneur.  He tells the story that he “didn’t grow up in money” and yet was able to create multimillion dollar companies out of nothing.  It turns out, however, that his parents both held graduate degrees and were highly successful professionals.  Vivek went to an elite prep school and had his own stock portfolio created for him by his parents that was “bringing in hundreds of dollars in dividends before he graduated high school and thousands by the time he attended Harvard, according to his 2002-2004 tax returns.”  Moreover, he accepted a scholarship “he previously said he needed in order to pay for law school.” The year he accepted a $90,000 award for law school, “Ramaswamy reported $2,252,209 in total income, according to his tax returns. He reported a total of $1,173,690 in income in the three years prior.”  You can read the full article here:  Vivek’s Background 

Why would someone as successful and seemingly intelligent as Vivek Ramaswamy create this false rags-to-riches narrative?  Why would he or anyone think that in order to be truly successful, to be “approved” by our culture that they need to first be a victim?  Why would anyone choosing to go into the public arena think that his deceptions would not be found out?  And, on a moral level, why would someone choose to deny who his parents really were and the positive help that they provided as they supported their son in his educational and career journey?  Is that not a slap in the face to his family?

The Consequences of Victim Labeling

Our Woke culture, our world of identity groups/politics, demands that we all be either victim or victimizer.  (I have fun wondering how my new-found victim status due to being a defined First Gen fits with my defined – due to my being White - status as victimizer.  Perhaps I should fall into some schizophrenic fugue.)

But seriously, we are all more than one label.  Each of us is an individual, not a two-dimensional cardboard cutout that can be labeled and then either applauded, condemned, or ignored.  We are all multi-dimensional and those dimensions include both positives and negatives, but all are uniquely ours.  They are what make us the INDIVIDUALS that we are.

If we are nothing more than the labels that some group has decided to place upon us then we lose our individual identity.  Not only who we are, but whom we may become is predetermined for us by someone else who may or more likely may not have our individual best interests in mind. 

If all we can be is what the label says we are, then why have any initiative?  And personal responsibility becomes meaningless because our actions are simply the result of our label.  If we are a victim, then we have our victimhood to blame for anything that goes wrong in our life.  After a fall we need not go through any self-examination or attempt to learn lessons for the future; we need not pull ourselves back up and try to do better or improve things for next time.  Rather, we can simply blame our victimhood and those labeled as our victimizers. 

Labeling is nothing more than a way to control us. People have always to some extent labeled others, and probably always will.  But today we have a political power movement that uses Wokeness to label and divide us and as a result take power over us.   You fit this label so you belong in this box.  No need to try to get out – to improve yourself or to go after your individual vision.  We have decided that this is you and therefore this is whom and what you will be.   And too many simply accept such labeling (or mislabeling) without question or, worse yet, seek it out.

Candidate Ramaswamy fell for the Woke labeling and believed that in order to be “successful candidate” he needed to have an appropriate backstory.  He chose the “rags to riches” narrative.  He became something he is not but that which fits within a particular label.  I chose to question my new label and was chastised for such questioning. 

Sadly, labels, and their subsequent import of victim or victimizer, are a part of our culture today.  We seek out and apply labels to both ourselves and others, and in so doing we diminish our humanity.  Accepting societal labeling grants power over us to those who create the labels and apply them.

The question is, are we playing victim, or is the need for victimhood playing us?  Because in the end, we are nothing but our own victimizers if the need to label, to be a victim, destroys us.  As Sophocles wrote in Antigone, "Who is the Slayer? Who is the Victim? Speak."

We need to answer this question for us, for today, for our civilization and our lives.  But we cannot truly answer it without shedding our need for labels, taking back the power over our being that we have granted to others, and becoming each our own unique individual.

Thoughts Provoked by Prince Philip’s Funeral

 

As I was watching Prince Philip’s funeral yesterday, I was struck by what a beautiful display it was of Tradition, Faith, and Family.  These are the bedrock that holds us together, that makes us whom we are, that gives us strength, especially in troubling times.  These exemplify core principles that allow society as well as mankind to grow.  And these foundations for a healthy society are rapidly disappearing if not gone in America.

America used to be a land of Tradition, Faith, and Family.  Now those values are derided by the Left.  What the Left does not understand is that with those values comes a tolerance and a respect for others, as well as a stable society able to address its shortcomings and better itself.  Those principles do not hold a society static but give it the power to grow.

               Tradition

Tradition is defined as “the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way.”  But the goal of the Left seems to be to completely cleanse America of the customs and beliefs that built her and made her great.  (Note I do not say perfect, but the beauty of America is that she aspired to a perfection and addressed the problems that stood in the way of that aspiration.) 

But now we have Cancel Culture which, in collaboration with identity politics, is a horribly destructive process.  The goal of the Left seems to be to rid the world of any trace of America and her traditions.  The Left has designated “winners” and “losers” in their identity labels.  If one is not a member of a favored identity group, they are being trained to deny and apologize for their heritage – for their customs and beliefs.  We have heard that White people are evil as are Christians or political conservatives. 

Just yesterday Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters told protesters in Minnesota to "get more confrontational" if Derek Chauvin isn't convicted of murdering George Floyd. (We’ll save the discussion of how this is a direct threat on that trial’s jurors as well as our concept of a fair judicial system with verdicts based on facts, not emotion or political agenda.)

This threat came on the heels of CNN’s Chris Cuomo saying “White people’s kids need to start getting killed” so there can be police reform.  And a Mercer Theology Professor writing and publishing a prayer in which she asks God to “please help me to hate White people.”

Yes, Whites, along with other unfavored identity groups would happily all be cancelled if not killed by true Left believers.  This while they select other, favored groups, to receive benefits denied to Whites simply because of the color of their skin.  Haven’t we been here before?  Racism is racism and, while this country has had a history of racism, it has also, because of its customs and beliefs, not to mention its form of government, been able to address those problems and move forward without turning around and destroying some other identity group.

               Faith

Faith is defined as “complete trust or confidence in someone or something.”  Generally, this means one’s God or religion or more generally a belief in something greater than oneself.  It is based on “spiritual apprehension rather than proof.”  But now it seems that the predominant focus is not on others or something beyond oneself, but rather simply on the self and making that self feel good.

We have self-love, self-care.  We have access to all sorts of material pleasures, all designed to make the self feel good.  Church attendance is at an all time low.  Respect for others (something every legitimate religion teaches) is becoming non-existent:  that is probably most reflected in the ease with which so many take the life of another as both a way to solve problems and a way to make oneself feel good. 

The Left’s new religion of “Wokeness” of which a part is their proclamation that this is some sort of humanitarian effort, is just the opposite.  Take one trip to the border to see the “humanitarian” efforts of young children so crowded (into what once when far less crowded were called cages) that they cannot even leave their “beds” (which are nothing more than a cover as they sleep on the floor).  How humanitarian is it when the Left’s border policies encourage child traffickers, coyotes whose greed often gets the border crossers they are “escorting” killed, or the huge increase in drugs which will end up destroying the lives of so many?

With the dismissal of Faith comes the end of true humanitarianism.  With the dismissal of true Faith comes the religion of self.  And we see that flourishing now as the real motivation of many in power as well as many of the Left acolytes is simply their own pleasure and power.  Faith gives a person, a family, and a country strength.  Its absence puts that country on the road to destruction.

               Family

Family is both “a social group made up of parents and their children” and “a group of people who come from the same ancestor.”  The family is the basis of all civilization and the family group, because it shares ancestors and customs, will include the elements of Tradition and Faith as those have developed within that family history. 

The Family – parents and children – is the basis for broader groups.  Families form tribes or villages.  Villages form towns.  Towns form cities.  Cities form countries.  What each of these groups will have in common is a similarity of Traditions, customs, and Faith.  They will not be identical, but they will be tolerant and find a way to live with one another to achieve goals that are common to their individual customs and values.

That is what America used to be.  But that is being destroyed as the Cancel Culture Left and its hate for seemingly everything that is, also is attacking the family.  Children are no longer a part of a family’s history and future; rather, they are simply something of convenience to be disposed of if they are inconvenient.  That includes not only early abortion, but late term and even post-birth abortion.  The current administration has just made fetal tissue approved for far more scientific studies.  That fetal tissue in large part comes from aborted children; demand for that (and thus for necessary abortions to provide it) will now increase.  And we’ve already mentioned child trafficking, and here we will include child pornography as more evidence that children are for many nothing more than a convenient furtherance of their own self pleasure

But the Family is also under attack in other ways.  Somewhere between 40 to 50 percent of marriages end in divorce in this country.   I suggest that is because of the loss of Faith and Tradition that make the sanctity of marriage less meaningful and condone ending that union when it becomes inconvenient or interferes with one’s personal pleasures.  And there is no question that the children of destroyed marriages suffer in so many ways.  Again, what is happening to the Family in this country is the result of a culture of self-love as not just the dominant but indeed the only important value.

               In Conclusion

Holding Tradition, Faith, and Family dear does not mean that a society is static or bound by intolerances of the past.  Great Britain, with it strong traditions, is not the same country that it has always been; it continually evolves yet maintains its Tradition, Faith, and Family.  Those foundations give a society the strength to evolve.

Those who care about this country should take a minute to reflect upon what we are losing as we allow the Woke Cancel Culture to ride roughshod over our Tradition, Faith, and Family.  The road we are on does not have a pretty ending, and, when we get there we will have lost something beautiful.

The Power Hungry Are Never Satisfied

I want to begin by recommending the well written and highly thought-provoking article by Mark T. Mitchell entitled The Death of God and the Death of Higher Education. LINK HERE 

I want to use one paragraph from that article as the jumping off point here.  That paragraph reads:

This quest for power is the characteristic feature of modern “higher” education. Students are taught that the world is divided into various groups whose primary identity is reducible to power differentials. A common pursuit of truth is replaced by overt and covert power struggles. In this new and barren world of power, the pursuit of the good, true, and beautiful is replaced by grievance and accusation. Concerted efforts to locate and correct injustice (a concept derived from a theistic account of the world) have been replaced by sweeping claims of “systemic” injustice, in which the entire civilizational edifice must be destroyed in the name of justice. But justice torn from its theistic grounding is merely a blunt instrument of power disguised in the moral language of a rejected world. Such a notion represents a self-refuting enterprise that will usher in not justice but unrestrained power cloaked in the God-haunted language of equality, social justice, and anti-racism.

I find this to so clearly encapsulate the social culture in which we are living today.  Everywhere one turns it seems to be all about power, with those in charge disguising their hunger for power as some sort of humanitarian and social justice that must be complied with to avoid showing yourself as some sort of anti-humanitarian who must be cancelled from the approved culture.

               Ramping-up Hatred

What are identity groupings about other than to create one group that holds power over another?  Rather than see all humans as one’s brother, identity politics teaches one that they are either a member of a victim group or of an oppressor group.  The oppressors are accused of working to maintain their own power and are encouraged to apologize for and relinquish it, while the victim groups are led to hate and attack their perceived oppressors in an attempt to obtain more power for their own group and then to wield that power over other groups whom they are taught to hate.

The President, who ran on the promise that he would unite us as one, has instead ramped up the identity hatred.  Now we have government programs that specifically exclude one race from their benefits, simply because of that race.  When we did similar things to Blacks a century ago, this country worked in a bipartisan fashion to correct that and treat all people as equals, regardless of race.  But now that those in power can benefit and retain their power by pushing identity hatred, they argue that the same sort of discrimination is OK because they have deemed the White race, against whom these new laws discriminate, to be members of an offensive identity group solely because of their race. That is racism pure and simple, a hatred created to benefit not the oppressed, but those currently in power.

Democrats claim that this discrimination is humanitarian and equitable.  It is anything but.  It is not humanitarian or just, but simply an ugly power grab based on hate.

               Silencing Voices and Facts

Those in power (including government, big tech, and corporate America) can tighten their grip on power if they silence opposing voices.  So we have cancel culture in full force, not based on facts, not based on equity or fairness, not based on humanitarian ideals, but simply on exercising and retaining power.

Consider the Georgia voting law.  It actually increases opportunities to vote, especially for rural and minority voters in that state.  Despite it being the very opposite of Jim Crow, President Biden, most Democrats, most of the mainstream media, many corporations are calling it just that.  Their claims are lies. 

Anyone who does even a cursory reading of the Georgia law will see that, contrary to our President's assertion, the new Georgia voting law does not prohibit giving water to voters waiting in line; rather it requires that poll workers be the ones to distribute it.  It also requires all 159 counties to have at least one vote drop box for mail in ballots.   It expands early voting access for most counties. It does require verification of identity for those requesting and returning mail in ballots which does not deny authorized voters the right to vote but does insure the integrity of their vote.  This is all a far cry from the Jim Crow label that the Democrats including the President and many in the media have placed on it.

But facts do not matter to those who are governed by their own quest for power.  The lies about the Georgia law have been exposed.  Nonetheless, led by the lies of the President and his urging, MLB has pulled the All-Star game from Atlanta.  That of course will hurt the largely Black population there, so the lie-based grab for power is hardly done in the name of standing for minorities or humanitarian efforts in their behalf.  It is simply a show of power and a punishment for passing a law that requires more standards of election integrity than would benefit those seeking to retain and strengthen their power.

The power hungry do not care about facts or about the consistency of their own values.  When it was convenient to attack the Trump administration the Democrats and their cohorts the mainstream media, big tech, big corporations, were all about decrying deplorable conditions at the border.  Now, when the border crisis is over 100% worse than it ever was under Trump (or any other president) these same people don’t even notice.  Trump was bad.  Biden was good.  Only facts supporting that narrative will be acknowledged.

               Powerful Join Forces Against Individual Rights

There is a frightening coalescence of government with private sector as both seek to cement their hold on power.  For example, President Biden cannot Constitutionally require “Vaccine passports” for internal movement of our citizenry.  But rather than stand for the Constitution and its protections for the people, he instead is urging big business to create such requirements, something that they can and likely will do.  They can withstand those who oppose such curtailment of our rights, and the President and the rest of the Democrats can deny responsibility but retain power.

Similarly, corporations make statements, cancel or refuse to sell certain products including books, make hiring decisions, censor, and take other actions based on the pronouncements of the “woke” Left.  Their actions, many of which would be unconstitutional if done by a governmental entity, are allowed because they are not the government.  Yet their actions are supportive of and fully in sync with those holding office and seeking to keep it and the power that goes with it.

               Equity Is Not Equality

Equity and fairness are not equality.  It is the equality, the extent to which it exists in this country as well as this country’s continued aspiration to ever improve its existence for all, that makes this country what it is.  Being equal, having equal opportunity, does not mean that results will be equal.  It does not mean that life will be fair.  But it does mean that everyone will have a fair shot at being the best they can be.

Equality does not divide people into identity groups, some of whom are given more equality than others.  Today this is being done in the name of things like “systemic racism” or similar perceived systemic injustices.  I have yet to be convinced that such systemic injustice exists, but if it does, it will not be cured by creating new systemic injustices.

               It’s Really All About Power, Not Humanitarian Ideals

I also have yet to be convinced that this president and his progressive administration really give a damn about any of the causes they claim to be pursuing for humanitarian or social justice reasons.  This is the party that created a minority underclass in our cities, dependent on, and therefore voters for, Democrat power. 

This is the party that is creating dangerous and inhumane conditions at our southern border while claiming that opening the borders is somehow humane.  Tell that to the trafficked children, to the Americans who are being displaced from jobs and homes and other due to the influx of illegal migrants that cities and towns simply cannot handle. 

Tell that to the taxpayers and to the next generations of taxpayers who cannot pay for these inhumane policies.  Just as they cannot pay for the trillions of dollars in spending that is supposedly for the good of the populace but in actuality simply furthers the power goals of the progressives.

It is not humanitarian to deny human individuality.  That is what cancelling those who disagree does.  That is what perpetuating lies does.  That is what identity politics does.  And that is what we are teaching our children to do:  deny human individuality, indeed make those who do not somehow benefit you and your power into inhuman caricatures and place them in a group that you can then justify as worthy of inhuman treatment. 

Power is a heady thing, and those who hold it right now seem to be willing to do anything to keep it.

 

The Silence of the Sheep: A Tragedy

I keep wondering why there is so much silence from the previously vocal and seemingly politically interested folks.  You know, the people who loved to quote the Left’s mistruths about Trump and his supporters.  The folks who voted for niceness and unity. 

I realize that they have in essence been instructed to go silent if they disagree with Biden or the Left agenda.  I realize they may believe such silence is a form of unity (which in the Biden-Left world means silence of all differing views).  But really, how could they be so vocal about even the slightest piece of nothing if it involved Donald Trump and yet remain so silent on even the most outrageous words or actions of Joe Biden?

Not a peep when Biden makes the most sexist and demeaning remarks or when he makes clearly erroneous statements about important issues about which the facts are undeniably clear.  Little more than a tut-tut when we learn that Cuomo is directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of seniors.  No notice when Biden’s AG nominee will not condemn the idea of having a head of the civil rights division who has blatantly declared that one racial group is superior to another, or  that he will distinguish as less important/not domestic terrorism recent attacks on government courthouses and other buildings if they happened at night.  Nary a flutter at the volume of racially motivated actions and appointments coming out of this White House. 

OK, maybe those were not big enough to notice.  How about the full out attack on women’s sports?  How about a Coronavirus package that will add significantly to the national debt, but has very little to do with Coronavirus but instead seems to bankroll extreme Leftist policies?  How about the on-going and ever more aggressive acts of cancel-culture?  How about an immigration “policy” that simply opens the doors without really any significant criteria, no consideration of criminal history or purpose for entering this county, not to mention a total disregard of possible Covid transmission – a consideration that at the same time is denying our children a real education and destroying small businesses everyday due to safety precautions – precautions that apparently do not apply to immigrants, legal or illegal?  How about Biden’s “Equality Act” which the Catholic League has labeled the “most comprehensive assault on Christianity ever written into law”?  Or the indoctrination programs in schools and government offices that are not only filled with misinformation but that teach hatred towards specific identity groups and hence work to divide and destroy our country?

Indeed, every action coming out of this administration since January 20^th (and there are many more than those listed above) seems to be designed to turn America on its head if not destroy it altogether.  And yet there is silence.  Silence on the drastic effect on taxes and employment and simply on the American dream. 

Where are all those people who just last year had such loud voices?  Do they really approve of all that is going on?  Do they know what is going on?  Or are they just sheep, doing as told with no thought of their own?  When told to bleat loudly and angrily they did so.  Now have they been told to quietly and contently baa?  It would seem so.  And like silent sheep, they are being led to slaughter; the tragedy is that they are taking the entire country with them.

And So It Continues – (in circles?)

It was exactly 4 years ago tomorrow that I began this blog.  Donald Trump had just been inaugurated and the Democrats and the Left were exceedingly angry.  The ability to have civil conversations was already falling apart and this seemed a good place to present my viewpoint without the childish games of Facebook and other social media.  (see my first post HERE)  

So, today I want to look both back and forward. 

As part of my introductory post 4 years ago, I wrote:

I am not an ideologue.  I do not belong to any political party and am happy to vote for Democrats, Republicans, or others depending on whom I believe will be best for the country as a whole.  My political leanings probably identify most with what were once called the “blue-collar lunch bucket Democrats” – a group that really doesn’t exist anymore.  In the 60s I was a self-styled “hippie” and antiwar protester.  I put myself through college and law school and practiced law before becoming a professor.  I have always been deeply committed to the Constitution and to the equal treatment of all along with the concept of individual responsibility and a “no excuses” approach to life.  I have always believed in America.  I have voted in every election since I became eligible, and as to presidential elections, I have voted for slightly more Democrats than Republicans.  In 2016 I voted for Donald Trump.  I do not think he is a perfect person, nor do I agree with all his policies, but I do believe that he was not only the best candidate but indeed a good candidate who believes in America and its promise.  I also believe that now that he is president, if we will allow him to govern and put our interests in what is best for the country as a whole, that we really will see a better and stronger America.  I hope to explain my reasons behind these statements in upcoming posts.

               Looking Back

What I said 4 years ago holds true today.  Yet in that 4 years the country has been through a lot.  The liberal Democrat party has become extreme progressive Left.  The Democrats never were able to accept Donald Trump as president and instead tried to block his every action whether good for the country or not.  Unable to get over their anger they allowed it to evolve into an intense, vitriolic, and irrational hatred for not only Donald Trump, but anyone connected with him including those who simply voted for him. 

Meanwhile, despite being under attack 24/7 by not only the Left but its handmaiden the media as well, President Trump indeed accomplished a lot for America.  Some of his accomplishments furthered policies that the Democrats opposed, but others did for America what Democrats themselves had been promising for years but unable to deliver. 

Most important to me was that he tried to counter the identity politics that for the previous at least 8 years had been used by the Left to tear this country apart.  Instead of identifying Americans as members of this or that victim or oppressor group, he simply furthered policies that treated all Americans the same – in the spirit of our Constitutional belief and aspiration that we all are equal.  And, despite some programs being identity blind, those whom the Democrats regularly identify as victim groups actually benefited the most – take for example jobs and the economy and the effect it had on the Black community, or Trump’s prison and criminal justice reforms.

The implementation of many of the Trump policies led Americans to once again have hope and a belief in the promise of this country.  For years prior to his election we had been led to believe that America was not a good country and it was our duty to feel guilty and apologize, both to those within our country who had been convinced they were victims with no hope as well as to the rest of the world.  President Trump put his and our country first and allowed Americans to be proud of who and what they are.

               Yet the Hatred – when and how did it begin?

Yet, along with the many positives that were accomplished by the Trump administration (but seldom reported by media), the anger level of the country reached the red zone.  This anger is expressing itself daily as pure hatred.  Many assert that it is traceable to the election of Donald Trump.  I disagree.

I saw hate grow for at least the 8 years prior to Trump’s presidency.  During that time we had a president and a progressive party who played group against group in an attempt to further their own power agenda. 

To grasp at an understanding of “why?” we must go back far more than 4 years, probably to the founding of this country or before.  Books could be (and have been) written.  There are many events and examples that have contributed to various degrees of anger and its cohorts fear and hatred. 

Let’s consider slavery as an example.  When the world came to realize that slavery was wrong, it ended it in a variety of ways.  In America, with no class or caste system, it was actually possible for former slaves and their descendants to rise to positions of wealth and power; some did.

But not all with a history of slavery did well.  There remained discrimination which came to a head in the 50s and early 60s.  While some Blacks had found a way to be successful before Civil Rights, the legislation of the 60s gave hope to all that they would truly have a better life.  And most were motivated to do the work necessary to personally succeed as they chose.

But, enter a series of programs, sparked at least in part by a desire to help but also, I believe, by a more sinister and racist belief that Blacks were/are not capable of succeeding on their own.  This, of course, completely contradicts the American belief/ideal that all humans are equal.   Nonetheless, a series of social programs, mostly created by the Left, created a dependent underclass of dissatisfied Americans.

Never ones to let discontent go to waste, the Left reminded those dissatisfied of their victim class.  We saw identity groups develop into battling warriors of us versus them.  The victims vs. the victimizers.  Blacks vs. Whites; Poor vs. Rich; Women vs. Men; Gay vs. Straight.  Intersectionality developed, giving us a framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege.  It became all about that – discriminated victim or privileged oppressor – rather than about the individual and that individual’s substantive character.  Individual substance has no place in a world governed by identity politics.

The anger of the oppressed was cultivated.  Those assigned the oppressor status felt unjustly accused and began to hate back.  And that is where we were when Donald Trump became President Trump.  And, despite his hope to see all of America thrive as one, he was thwarted repeatedly by the Left who ramped up their fomentation of hate among their malicious identity group creations. 

As President Trump’s 4 years progressed, the Left seemed completely unable to see people as people; rather, they were simply representatives of a particular identity group.  Conservatives and whites were deemed evil and essentially inhuman, thus not only justifying, but necessitating hatred and violence toward them.  Meanwhile, every member of designated victim identity groups was to be honored and always believed: almost superhumans capable of no wrong.

               The Election and January 6

The election had irregularities.  Many believe there was widespread fraud.  This came to a head on Jan. 6, the date the votes of the Electors were counted.  As was their right, some Congress people planned to object to those votes.  As was their right many Americans gathered near the Capitol to protest the counting and to support the objections.  As was his right, the President spoke to his supporters.  And as often happens when there are actions and protests that are highly charged, a small percentage of those present turned violent; those few misguided individuals illegally stormed the Capital.

What is now called the “insurrection” by the media and Democrats has given the Left an excuse to continue to promulgate their hatred against not only President Trump but anyone who does not fall into lockstep with the Left’s positions.  We now see calls to “cleanse” the Republican Party, blacklisting of Trump supporters, silencing and cancelling of all opposing views, and a general litany of threats toward anyone who is not on board with Leftist policies, all under the guise of “healing.”

It also gave us a militarized capital that looked more like what one sees when a dictator (always in fear of being unseated) takes over.  These were troops that the Democrats demanded be vetted as not anti-Biden before they could take their posts.  This look of a police state is something that America should never become desensitized to.

               Looking ahead to the Biden presidency (or is it looking back?)

So here we are.  We have just experienced the inauguration of a new president.  What are my thoughts now?

I fear that we are actually circling back to the era immediately preceding President Trump.  We see already President Biden’s litany of signing executive orders to cancel former President Trump’s accomplishments. 

We see a clear return, actually mandate, of identity politics as Biden proudly proclaims not the qualifications of his various appointees but their superficial identity instead: “We'll have a Cabinet of barrier breakers, a Cabinet of firsts” he said.   And so we will have the first woman of color VP, first transgender person as Assistant Secretary of Health, first Native American Secretary of Interior, first openly gay Secretary of Transportation, First Black Defense Secretary, first Latino to head Department of Homeland Security, first woman of color to head Office of Management and Budget, first woman Director of National Intelligence.  The list goes on and on.  (Those appointments that are not “firsts” seem to be mostly retreads from the Obama years.)

I have nothing against people of diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, and beliefs holding these positions; in fact, such diversity is generally a good thing.  But what I object to is the bias inherent in picking individuals specifically for those qualities.  Such bias by necessity excludes a number of qualified individuals from even being considered.  It is racist, sexist, and otherwise discriminatory.  That is not American where a core principle is equal opportunity for all, not just for members of specific identity groups.

This dividing of Americans into groups also counters President Biden’s words calling for “unity.”  Group identity does nothing but divide us.   It is becoming more and more clear that the “unity” that the President and his party are calling for is simply a silencing of all opposing views.  Without any dissent we may have the illusion of peace and unity, but we will have lost America. 

A unity born of silencing also requires elevating narrative over truth.  We saw during the campaign that candidate Biden had no qualms about repeating by then disproven allegations against President Trump.  We see the same disregard for the truth in the first presentation of President Biden’s press secretary.  Jen Psaki vowed to “combat misinformation” while during the same press conference proclaiming that Biden had issued an executive order ending Trump’s “Muslim ban.”  That misnomer was proven false at the time the ban was issued and again last year when Biden used it on the campaign trail.   (What Democrats call a “Muslim ban” was an executive order issued on January 27, 2017, that barred tourism and immigration from seven countries previously identified by the Obama-Biden administration as being particularly vulnerable to terrorism, partly because their internal record-keeping was substandard. These seven nations happened to be Muslim-majority countries, but there was no blanket ban on Muslims from other Middle Eastern countries or the two largest Muslim countries, India and Indonesia.)

The Press Secretary also made it clear that hypocrisy is alive and well in the Biden administration.  She informed us that it was perfectly OK that President Biden violated his own mask mandate because he has “bigger issues to worry about.”  Apparently, the American people are not one of those issues.

So, without a respect for facts, without a respect for all Americans or a belief in the equality of all, without a true respect for America and its citizens, I am concerned when I look at what the next 4 years may bring.  In many respects it is not forward, but a circling back to the often anti-American policies of the Obama years. 

The Biden Administration will not give us the utopia that many dreamed.  I believe that it will, however, give me much to write about as this blog continues.

 

White Privilege, White Guilt

 History often provides lessons for the present.  Herein are some snippets of Russian history that have sparked my thoughts about privilege and guilt.  (And, as an aside, this is just one reason why we need to read and understand history rather than cancel it).

I was recently reading about the Populist movement in Russia in the late 1800s in which students and others involved in the movement picked up and moved from Moscow and St. Petersburg to the countryside to live with the peasantry.

These young [Populists] were riddled with the guilt of privilege.  Many of them felt a personal guilt towards that class of serfs – the nannies and the servants – who had helped to bring them up in their families’ aristocratic mansions.  They sought to free themselves from their parents’ sinful world, whose riches had been purchased by the people’s sweat and blood, and set out for the village in a spirit of repentance to establish a ‘New Russia’ in which the noble and the peasant would be reunited in the nation’s spiritual rebirth.  By dedicating themselves to the people’s cause – to the liberation of the peasantry from poverty and ignorance and from the oppression of the gentry and the state – the students hoped to redeem their own sin:  that of being born into privilege.  (Orlando Figes, Natasha’s Dance, A Cultural History of Russia, 220)

One can’t help but see parallels to America today.  Today the woke Left has discovered the useful concept “White privilege” and demands that White individuals admit their privilege (which may or may not exist) and proclaim their guilt.  Their sin is that they may or may not have benefited from the status of Whites throughout history; their privilege may or may not have had some negative impact on non-Whites. 

The Left, using a selective reading of history, portrays this country as full of sin due to White Privilege.  The sins of the ancestors now fall to present day Whites.  This sin must be redeemed.

Sure, we hear words like reparations as a form of retribution for the sin, but what is this really about?  Is this White privilege/White guilt about concern for those who are not White, or is it really about furthering a socialist agenda while making oneself feel good?  Like the Russian Populists, are today’s White penitents, convinced that they should feel guilty, simply trying to “redeem their own sin”? 

The sin itself does not make sense.  Just as the Russian students were not complicit in their parents’ choice of a peasant nanny, today’s Whites were not complicit in any possible sins of their ancestors.  The Russian Populists were not guilty simply because they were born to aristocracy any more than today’s Whites are guilty simply for being born White. 

Yet, convinced they are sinners, both the Russian Populists and the woke Whites do penance.  This penance is done for absolution of the sinner – to remove the stain of the “sin” of privilege; it really in the end has nothing to do with non-White victim identity groups.   Those groups are created by the Left to make one group feel guilty and in need of absolution while furthering the Left’s power over other groups whom they have made dependent upon them and their promises of a better life.

Like the Left, the Russian Populists promised a better life.  They were going to liberate the peasants from their “poverty and ignorance.”  Ignorance is a significant word here.  It suggests that the Populists believed in some way that the peasants were less than their Populist saviors who believed it was their right or duty to do for the peasants what the Populists believed they could not do for themselves.    

Not unlike the many programs created for today’s minority victim groups, “a whole range of institutions” were set up to improve the Russian peasants’ welfare and to integrate them into national life.  The attitude towards these peasants was one of “paternal populism.”  The peasants, however, were angry with those socialist ideas and with those who were trying to take control over their lives.  They did not want to be patronized; the paternalism was offensive to them.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines paternalism as “the interference of a state or an individual with another person, against their will, and defended or motivated by a claim that the person interfered with will be better off or protected from harm.” 

The essence of paternalism is that one group is seen as “less than” another, as unable to exist without the paternal assistance.  While paternalistic handouts may be useful, they rectify nothing.  Paternalism does not provide the tools or education that would allow those being helped to actually improve their status and no longer need the paternalism and its welfare. 

For the past 50 years the Left’s paternalistic entitlement programs have kept the minorities they are allegedly designed to help in minority ghettos.  They have not made the minorities “better off,” nor have they “protected them from harm.” 

What this paternalism has done is keep the alleged victims right where they are – less than those who are their paternal keepers.  It intentionally creates an underclass that is dependent upon their paternal keepers.  This benefits only the Left which gains power by maintaining the dependence of this underclass.

As the Populist movement in Russia collapsed, it became clear that the idea of the peasants that the Populists had in their minds did not exist.  Placement into an identity group in no way correlates to actual understanding of that individual or his needs.  Indeed, one can never know another group better than the group knows itself.  To pretend to do so is to believe one is superior to another.

In large part due to their lack of actual understanding of the peasants as people, things did not go well for the Russian Populists.  Their movement ultimately failed.   However, the idealism of the movement remained, and Lenin used it to bolster his revolution not many years later.  And that certainly did not go well for the peasants!

Perhaps at least some of the White Privilege-Guilt is, like that of the Russian Populists, based on some idealistic belief in a better world.  I tend to think that it more likely results from the Left’s manipulation of basically good emotions.  Perhaps some of the “guilty” feel their unknown sins have been redeemed.  But in the end, it is the Left, not those labeled victims of the privileged, that actually benefits. 

The Left is creating and fomenting the divisiveness that any good Marxist knows is necessary to bring about socialism.  They are also creating the idealist fairy tale about how their progressivism will heal all.  

The victims having been determined and guilt having been proclaimed, the Left provides the way to assuage it:  support their paternalistic institutions and organizations that will “take care of” the victim group and your guilt will be redeemed.  In essence, give power to the Left and they will fix the problem.  The Left will anoint the woke as both redeemer and redeemed.   Of course, nothing goes unrewarded; the Left will expect gratitude in the form of power.

I’m not buying it.  The Left belies the supposed noble concern of its guilt based calls for more paternalism when it sees only useful groups rather than individuals and when it treats those groups as some underclass whose dependence is cultivated rather than as equal individual humans who are due respect. 

Even the most noble sounding cause must consider not just the cause but the actual and complex individuals whom it will affect.  Lenin’s motivations for socialism were for the most part based on idealistic beliefs.  The ideal did not become a reality because it failed to understand the effect that its “I know better than you what you need” attitude would have on real individuals and their spirit.

Failure to see people as more than some identity statistic demonstrates a lack of real compassion for those people as individual and equal human beings.  While useful in fomenting revolutionary change, identity groups are destructive to the lives of real people. 

Everyone in some way has been lucky through no fault of their own and in other ways unlucky through no fault of their own.  Experiencing something better than another in some area does not create some privilege-victim relationship.  The unfairness of life does not mandate victim status for some and guilty status for others.

The Russian Populists ultimately realized that “they were cut off from the actual peasants by a cultural, social and intellectual abyss that they could not hope to bridge.” They then accepted that within their many differences they were all Russians. 

So too are we all Americans.  The Left would divide us by placing us into competing groups.  The division benefits none but the Left.    

We can learn from history that concepts of privilege, guilt, and their cohort paternalism do not end well for the real people seen as needing the interference of a paternalistic savior.

Guilt that is real should be redeemed.  But guilt belongs to the one who actually committed the sin.  Sin and retribution are not group holdings.  Retribution for actual sin should not be some form of paternalism that only furthers the sin.  Do not let the Left’s need for paternalistic power interfere with our individual yet united humanity.

 

What is Your Identity?

Recently when I checked out at my grocers I had my typical conversation with the bagger and the checker.  I have been going to this grocer for years, and these two have worked there for years.  In the course of weekly trips to stock my pantry we have had short conversations in which we have learned a bit about one another – our families, our ups, our downs, our hometowns, our sports teams, our likes and dislikes, etc.  We are not really friends.  I refer to them as the tall, good bagger and the checker from the Midwest.  They probably refer to me as something like the old lady who always buys Vernors and potato chips.  I think we all enjoy our brief conversations.  Before and after I enter their checkout space, I sometimes hear them have similar type conversations or joking with one another.

The bagger is Black.  The checker is what one might refer to as a Redneck.  I am an old white lady.  Somehow these external identifying characteristics have never interfered with our jovial and caring interactions.

Until, that is, the Left made it impossible to ignore the dehumanizing and superficial characteristics of identity politics.  About halfway through our most recent interaction, into my mind came the currently unavoidable disruptive voice of identity politics.  I wondered if the Black bagger was thinking of me as some “Karen” type racist or some sort of white supremacist.  I wondered how the Redneck and the Black really felt about one another.  Did the Redneck have a confederate flag tucked away somewhere?  Was the Black man an active supporter of BLM and its lists of demands against Whites?  These and other such thoughts crept into my brain, making me for the first time ever self-conscious as we conducted our banter.  That is, it interfered with our ability to relate to one another as the human beings that we are.

And then I reminded myself that is exactly what we are – individual human beings, each with our own story.  We are not one-dimensional representatives of Left-defined identity groups.  But, then, why would anyone want us to see one another as if we were? I see two possible reasons.

First, it is possible that the Left, who would define us all one-dimensionally based upon the identity group into which they place us, actually see people this way.  Perhaps, because they live in their own one-dimensional worlds, not ever really interacting with those unlike them, they are only able to see others by external and superficial characteristics which they then use as definitions of the entire person of anyone possessing those characteristics. 

The second possible reason is more sinister: dividing people into one-dimensional identify groups serves a deeper purpose of which many Leftists are fully aware.  If you can get people to accept that they are defined by one characteristic only, then create the perception of their identity placement as victimhood,  and then set various defined identity groups against one another, you have a good breeding ground for fomenting some sort of Socialist revolution. 

I think both reasons are valid explanations.  I also think that both are toxic to society and to humanity.  Somehow the Left has managed to convince us that it is OK to define people not as people but as one-dimensional members of one or another identity group.  At the same time they have encouraged the rise of the victim status and its codependent partner – hate for some other identity group.   

People, more and more afraid to speak their own individual minds, thus become more and more defined by the identity group into which someone else places them.  As everyone more and more goes to their own separate corner, it becomes harder and harder to join together as complex individuals each with individual characteristics yet all a part of one human race.

As these divisive techniques and results of identity politics more frequently creep into my brain, I will try to remember the innocent and very human interactions between the Bagger, the Checker, and Me.  Not defined by external or superficial characteristics.  Defined by stories of each’s family and individual history and experiences.  Unique to each of us.  Not one of a group but one of a kind.

These are the interactions that a healthy society has and that it needs.  They used to be fairly common.  But now, overshadowed by the hateful specter of identity politics, they become more and more rare. If we are to save ourselves – both individualy and as a part of humanity – and if we are to save our society and its freedoms, we must cast off any identity that is not uniquely our own and we must see only the full and unique identity of others.  We must stop defining and being defined by group labels.  To the Left that pushes them more and more forcefully upon us we must just say NO.

What Matters?

Here is a thought for the day:

Lives Matter.

If you need to put a color in front of that statement, then you are the racist.

Why do I say that?  Here is the definition of racism: “the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.”

That is, identifying by race just plays into the identity politics that are by their very nature racist.  This is true whether we are identifying particular races whose lives do or do not matter, particular races whose businesses we should or should not patronize, particular races who should or should not receive taxpayer money, particular races who should or should not receive special benefits, or any other type of categorization by racial identity.

Identity politics and its accompanying racism is a tool in a game played by ideologues who are seeking nothing more than their own power.  Racial identity as well as other identity groups are nothing more than pawns in their game. 

Watch this game play out in the proposed police reform bills.  The Democrats quashed the Republican bill that had a good chance of bipartisan support and thus a chance to pass into law. Democrats aren’t even interested in debate on the bill.   Instead the Democrats with the support of their usual propaganda machine (mainstream media and entertainment industry) put forward a bill that has little chance of passage. 

Why, you may wonder, would they not want to debate a bill that might pass?  Why propose something that likely will not pass?  The answer is simple.  They care more about keeping the issue alive for their own election purposes than actually enacting the reforms.  The languishing bill allows them to continue to use racial identity politics against their Republican rivals.

Identity politics is strong and getting stronger.  People are fired, ridiculed, attacked for simply questioning its premises, for wanting to treat all citizens equally rather than singling out one group or another for special treatment or for their “collective guilt.”  I’m sure the statement that opens this post (“Lives Matter”) qualifies me for attack by those invested in the identity politics game.

Historically, the Democrat party was once the anti-Black party.  It now claims the title of the pro-Black party, the party that will be the Savior for Blacks in America.  What cloak will they next put on?  The answer is the one that serves them best in their quest for absolute power over all of our lives.

So, I will stand against their attempts to turn me into a racist by buying into their identity games.  I will not prefer one race over another.   I will not make decisions about individuals based upon the color of their skin, whether it is what life I think matters or what business to patronize or to whom I might feel guilty.

As I stated in a recent post (LINK):  

Unless and until we stand up to the game being played out in our capital and on our streets, the war of identity politics can and will only increase, and only to the benefit of those who are using it for their own gain.

Here are two essays worth reading:

Commentary from Harlan Hill in Real Clear Politics, Think the ‘Cancel’ Mobs Can’t Get Any Worse? Think Again  (LINK)

Opinion by Megan McArdle in The Washington Post, Where do we draw the line in tearing down statues?  (LINK)

“I will not become a racist to prove that I am not one” and other short thoughts on current events

Yesterday I read the story of a police officer comforting a Black 5-year-old who asked if he were going to shoot her.  This anecdote was being used to demonstrate the horror of “institutionalized racism.”  I was horrified – horrified that this child had learned this fear at such a young age.  And who, I ask, likely instilled that fear in her – her parents or other caregivers?

So, I must wonder, can all the blame for hatred go to those whom the victims claim hate them, or might some of it fall on the victims themselves?  For if a child at the tender age of 5 has been taught that police are likely to shoot her, what else has she been taught about those who are not members of her racial victim class?  How much of that is actually true or justifies a fear against a whole group?  With that fear the seeds of hate are also planted. 

And, how can we ever come together and be one nation if one group of us (whether that group is Black, White, or other) is teaching fear and hate rather than love and reconciliation against another group.  No wonder BLM and its partner M4BL (Movement for Black Lives) make demands on those whom they perceive as victimizers rather that reaching out to work with those others together to make a better world.

**

People say they want conversations, but it seems that what that really involves is dueling studies.  That is, each side will have their studies and statistics that “prove” their points and with those in hand seem to close their mind to any real dialog about those studies or diverse views supported by alternate studies. 

One can always find a study or data point to support their position.  Using them as a sort of “in your face” to those with opposing or differing views does nothing to resolve divisions.  What actually might resolve hatred and division is urging others and opening one’s own mind to understand that we are all part of one humanity that can work together to make a better world.  But we will never do that if we focus on our divisions and feel some need to prove that our position is always absolutely right and all others are absolutely wrong.

**

There is a difference between peaceful, lawful protests intended to make a point relevant to policy and urge changes in policies that the demonstrators are against, as opposed to riots, or revolts, or revolutions that simply focus on destruction.  Those who say that all are the same are actually siding with those who favor complete destruction.  

Those who would take away all police power, all lawful authority are in the process of destroying our democracy.  We do not have a first amendment right to riot and destroy other people or their property; it is the duty of our law enforcement and our leaders to protect the citizenry from unlawful acts.  

If we cease to have a safe democratic state that can only lead to having instead a safe authoritarian state.  Such a state would not even allow the peaceful protests that are not only a part of but a necessary piece of our democracy.

**

Let’s say that we: clear the nation of all confederate statues; put a large chunk of money for “reparations” in every Black person’s pocket; make it illegal to use any terms, phrases, or express any feelings or beliefs that the Black protests/demands deem to be racist; defund and dismantle law enforcement; send millions of dollars to Black communities.  Will the rioters be happy then or will they continue to: teach their children to hate, especially those who look different or think differently than do they; blame anything that is not perfect in their lives on a problem with the “system”? 

Racism will only really be resolved when each and every one of us is willing and able to take individual responsibility for our lives and when we hold individuals rather than identity groups accountable for their bad acts.  Only when we are all equally outraged at the unjust treatment or murder of any person of any color will we actually have moved forward. 

**

Identity politics is in large part responsible for bringing us to this point.  For the past 50 years mostly Democrat leaders of areas with large Black populations (especially large cities) have, despite their promises, done little to help raise Black people to a better existence, but have instead used identity politics to convince the Black population of their victim status.  This was useful for those politicians who could then claim that this underclass needed them and hence would demand their votes to keep them in power. 

Their power required this underclass and, in the name of helping our neighbors, they encouraged all of us to help to create it.  We reinforced mantras such as “you are not good enough on your own”; “you can only go so far”; the Whites/rich/republican/[fill in the blank] are out to get you and you must fear them”; and of course “you need the state, things like welfare, to survive because you cannot do it on your own.” 

Messages such as that are far more racist than demanding that Blacks simply be accountable.  Those who listen to those messages will always be victims full of hate at their perceived oppressors and ready to serve as tools for anyone who wants to “revolt” against the “system” usually for their own power, not to help those whom they see as their tools.

**

Gratitude is a key to joy.  Being filled with envy and hate destroys joy.  It also destroys one’s self.  It destroys one’s ability for self-motivation – why be motivated if others are all against you and likely will not let you succeed?  Instead of being the one in charge of one’s own life, falling victim to identity politics allows others to control your life and indeed your very identity. 

**

I am being urged to buy from Black retailers and Black business owners in order to show my solidarity with the “fight against racism.”  Well, to seek out or award someone simply because of their color seems pretty racist to me.  I tend to think the best individual should always win based on skills necessary to the contest, not simply because of a color of skin.  When I want to buy something, I will purchase from the retailer that best suits my needs be that price, quality or variety of products offered, convenience and quality of service, etc.  That retailer may be Black, White, or purple.  I will not become a racist to prove that I am not one.