Institutionalized victimhood
“Institutionalized victimhood”–that’s a term best applied to today’s American universities. At these places of “higher learning,” impressionable young adults are indoctrinated into embracing the cause of victimization.
Through various liberal arts courses (often integral parts of the university’s core curriculum), today’s college kids are being forced to come to grips with their status as a victim of some societal problem or other, usually racism, homophobia, sexism, capitalism, nationalism, colonialism, or the “oppressive patriarchal order” itself.
On the other hand, if the college students in question happen to come from so-called “privileged backgrounds,” they are strongly encouraged to feel guilty about the alleged transgressions of their white ancestors.
In the name of “multiculturalism” and “diversity training,” today’s college students are strongly encouraged to “reflect” upon their roles in society. During lecture and class discussions, students are asked certain loaded “thought questions.”
A young woman, for example, might be asked, “How do you feel about being treated unfairly?”
An African-American student might be asked, either directly or indirectly, “How do you feel about being the target of racial discrimination in the workplace?”
A gay student might be asked, “How do you feel about being ‘disenfranchised’ or ‘marginalized’ in our society?”
Just about any student might be asked, “How do you feel about greedy corporations ruining the South American rainforests and the rest of the global environment?”
In a test or formal assignment, students might be instructed to “Please explain the stereotypes and/or prejudice being exhibited by and/or towards the characters [in the film we just saw]. Please elaborate on who mor what was responsible for the prejudice and discrimination.”
The underlying idea behind all of these questions is institutionalized victimhood or victimization. The academics have an underlying interest in promoting class warfare and creating victims.
Victims are needed to keep the welfare state alive. Liberal intellectuals, the denizens of our public universities, need victims to give them job security, as well as a basis for self-congratulations, as author Thomas Sowell puts it in “The Vision of the Anointed.”
Liberal academics do not trust the private marketplace. They do not trust human beings to interact in the private marketplace. Liberal university intellectuals have no confidence in the so-called “common man.” They want to intrude in their private affairs. They want to use their vast knowledge to impose centralized planning and big government.
That is why so many academics love the U.S. Census and other forms of social data collection. They cannot resist the temptation to “improve people’s lives” by interpreting the data and formulating various policy initiatives in the name of the public good.
Victims, real or imagined, furnish academics with a glorious opportunity to serve in a noble cause: namely, (re) education and big government. They get to conduct all sorts of social studies with government funding.
Strictly a personal view. Charles Reyes Jr. is a regular columnist of Saipan Tribune. Mr. Reyes may be reached at charlesraves@hotmail.com
