
One of the major things I see as raising Civilization above mob rule is justice. Please note that I don’t say “law” – I say “justice,” because justice and law are not the same.
Justice, to me, starts with what the Rig-Veda calls “karma.” Let’s not get into the religious ramifications of karma; I’d prefer to use it as shorthand for “what goes around comes around.” You reap what you sow. Take care of your family, your friends, your neighbors – and they’ll take care of you. Screw people over, and you’ll get screwed over, somehow, in turn. Not necessarily directly, and not necessarily “from outside;” our lives will balance things out, and I would rather put more “good” out into the world just for the sake of having more good in the world.
My definition of justice goes on to include the notion that the “little guy” gets justice, too. The wealthy, the powerful, have no more of those “inalienable rights … (to) life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” than the poor, the humble, the powerless. Might does not make right, to put it simply; not might of arms, nor might of power, nor might of wealth.
Nor might of law. In my own naive opinion, “law” should be a code to clarify the Rights of the Individual and the less-definable Rights of the Community, and a system to judge disputes and determine which party – plaintiff or defendant – actually is right. I say “should” because that’s not what I see in law, in this society, today.
What I see instead, in law, are politics, and special interests, and a self-perpetuating system that’s all about more laws. And more special-interests. And more work for more lawyers, for more judges, for more policemen. And no longer to “support Justice,” but to support the Rights Of The Victim.
With special emphasis on Defining The Victim.
One of the great sea-changes in modern law has been that of expanding the case from the individual, here-and-now circumstances to the inclusion of “historical wrongs” as a matter of current jurisprudence. It’s not enough, say the jurists, that an individual should atone for his own wrongs against another individual. Now it’s regarded as “right” that an individual should atone for the wrongs visited by his imputed ancestors against the ancestors of a “historically victimized” group. Since a long-dead group of my genotype, call us “Group C,” once oppressed a long-dead group of (let’s call them) “Group I” – the current members of “Group I” see fit to blame me and my current members of “Group C” for those historical wrongs; and the courts look favorably on their case.
This has led to the remarkable situation I call “Victim Power”. I describe this as “the empowerment, the special regard, the grants of special aid and special advantage, that should be afforded the Historical Victim in any, every, and all situations that might imply or include the existence of an Historical Oppressor.”
Victim Power does have some constraints, though, to its utility. The “Historical Victim” must have a “history of oppression” to point out, in order to make the case. The group must be able to hold up evidence that they are still suffering, somehow, from this “oppression”. To maintain their case, they generally must portray themselves as “helpless,” “manipulated,” “held down” by the Oppressor Class, even as they insist that they “could do it all if it weren’t for the machinations of those Oppressors!”
This works pretty well, for a while, if you have a Historical Oppressor. If someone actually invaded your land, killed your grandfathers, imposed their rule, and continue to exploit you in a blatantly-unfair system, or one you can allege is “blatantly unfair,” you’ve got a case. You can find champions, you can win redress … for as long as you continue to be obviously “downtrodden.” This doesn’t work any more, though, when you and your “fellow victims” get to the point where you’re living better than your supposed “oppressors”.
What’s a victim to do, when they’ve won way more than they ever lost? Could you enjoy your victory and live well on the fruits of it? Worse yet, what happens to your champion; can he live on your sincere appreciation alone, after he’s won the day for you?
Apparently not. The “victim business” is just too lucrative. Our society takes very good care of “victims,” so it’s worth a lot to maintain your “victim” status.
The answer, apparently, is to show off more ways that you’re a victim; to display more and more-varied ways of oppression, to allege that you’re still oppressed, to stretch the shadow of your Victimhood as far as you possibly can imagine. And if you can’t point out your “victimhood” any more – because you have been so much, so often, so long the Actual Victor – then you’ll just have to resort to inventing oppression, even to the point of using a tiny slur to justify firestorms of public outrage. Piling up that outrage, then piling up others’ response to your own outrageous acts to present it as more and more outrage – piling Ossa upon Pelion, to be classical about it.
Probably the most successful “Professional Victims” in the modern world are women. Team Womyn have turned generosity into obligation, well-intended advice into deadly insults, their own blatantly-felonious wrongs into “justified response,” and the privilege of a tiny, tiny few into “obvious discrimination.”
Victim Power is, now, the societally-sanctioned axiom that “It’s all the Man’s fault.” And it continues to be used as the false front of a system that is reaching beyond Equal Rights – and for Women’s Supremacy.
There is a certain irony that the State where I grew up, the Commonwealth of Virginia, used Victim Power (though maybe not so blatantly labeled) in its State Seal, which is slightly modified in this graphic. I have not used the new Politically Correct version, devised by recent Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to hide the “wardrobe failure” of the original seal. I prefer to be honest:
“The New Tyrant” is among us, and she does indeed have tits.
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A Few Good Links:
Cause and Blame: The Myth of Victim Blaming (Constitutional Daily, 1 Oct 2011) points out the fallacy of holding up a well-meaning individual’s advice as a “shaming tactic.”
False Victimhood (A Voice For Men, 19 March 2012) is another article that prompted me to publish this one. I’d kept it “on the spike” for a while …
Divorced Dads and Little League (The Spearhead, 20 Mar 2012) is a great example of Victim Power in operation, with the Tearful Concerned Ex-Wife contriving to slap an Emergency Order of Protection on her ex-husband expressly to deny him from even coaching their son’s Little League team.
The Fundamental Cause of Feminism(In Mala Fide, 21 Mar 2012) – “Society is an apparatus for providing women with resources.” This ensures survival in a world of scarcity – but what does it do in a world of abundance?
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