Beyond Rivalry

Another idea I have for an occasional series: News stories in which some group is labelled 'the victim' of a group, abstraction, or individual. I think it's educational and interesting to explore who or what are identified as victims and perpetrators in the media.

Recently,

American people are the victims: "The whiners are the leaders. Hell, the American people are victims. ..." [Said by political advisor and former Congressman Phil Gramm, reported today]

Palestinians are the victims of Jewish persecutors: "Touring the somber [Holocaust] museum, it occurred to [Israeli-Arab lawyer] Mahameed that 'we Palestinians are the victims of the terrible things that were inflicted on the Jews by the Holocaust.' [8 July; the article is actually eye-opening, moving, IMO]

Bass and salmon are the victims of mismanagement: "Striped bass are the victims of gross state and federal mismanagement of Central Valley rivers and the Delta, as are collapsing Sacramento River chinook salmon populations." [8 July]

Tuna are the victims of their own success: "Chronically overfished, Mediterranean tuna are the victims of their success with fish lovers, especially with the passion for sushi." [3 July]

Sociopathic politicians, celebrities and sports figures are the victims: "For all the public examples of bad behavior set by politicians, celebrities and sports figures, many young people see these individuals for exactly what they are: spoiled, overrated sociopaths who are the victims of an overly indulgent, disengaged society in search of civilization." [7 July]

Pakistani college women are the victims of cell phone use: "Mostly intermediate students are the victims of mobile mania"  [8 July]

San Diego stores are the victims of shopping cart theft and displacement: "The stores are the victims, Councilman Jack Feller said, and they aren't the ones who should be punished." [12 June]

and finally, the word "victim" isn't used but it's sure implied in this odd story [7 July]:

"A special meeting about Dallas County traffic tickets turned tense and bizarre this afternoon.

"County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.

"Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections 'has become a black hole' because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.

"Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud 'Excuse me!' He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a 'white hole.'

"That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy."

wtf? 

Notes from Alain de Botton's Status Anxiety (2004). This is the sixth post on this topic; the first is here.

CHAPTER 5 - DEPENDENCE

Status, historically, was tied to what one was at birth, not what one achieved in one's lifetime. [Can you imagine that this is a new concept? It seems so wholly part of what one seems to know.]  Modern societies try to reverse this, to make rank dependent only on achievement -- usually, financial achievement.

The most evident trait of the struggle to achieve status now is uncertainty.

de Button lists five unpredictable elements:

(1) talent - it could desert us or we could find we never really had it

(2) luck - no longer as acceptable to point to as a factor, no moody gods to blame these days. The world is "enamored of rational control."

(3) dependence on an employer (q.v., Machiavelli, Guicciardini, La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyère, et al.)

(4) dependence on an employer's profitability 

(5) dependence on the global economy

Workers' status is never guaranteed, is always dependent on their own performance and on factors that are outside of their control.