I am having a slight problem with the thread's I am sure that many of us share your exact thought. To use prejudice based in the human arena, there are many, many people within ANY given race that I absolutely do hold some prejudice but the races themselves are not to blame for the individuals. The bottom of it all is the question: Who wakes up in the morning declaring that they are a victim? Surely, in today's enlightened society nearly everyone is a victim of something. Now, perchance for whatever reason we cannot find anything to be a victim of then it is our job to smooge and fawn over those individuals who feel themselves to be the downcasts of a particular part of society. After all, if we are not the victim, we must be the reason that someone cannot find their way and must placate them by giving them everything they want otherwise, we get a classification of being some kind of "phobe" or "ist". Problem: A child cannot succeed in sports so is the victim of someone who wins all the time. Solution: Give everyone a trophy......no more winners, no more losers. Problem: A worker is the victim of the CEO's of their respective companies. Solution: Give everyone a starting wage of $15 an hour whether they merit it or not. Problem: An armed criminal is the victim. Solution: Shoot the police and/or burn down the town. Problem: Didn't finish school because it was too boring and now I cannot find a job. Solution: Give the victim of the educational system a government check. And the list of victims goes on and on ad infinitum. When people start waking up declaring that there is nothing that can hold them down then maybe, just maybe any kind of bias based on a whole part of society will cease to be. If I win, so be it. If I lose then I need to step things up a notch because losing is all about me and no one else (particularly a whole race or faction) is to blame for it.
Great post Bobby and you know I've never classed meself as a victim. Life is what it is and we have to progress in it Victims get on me nerves a bit - you have to move on otherwise there's no point to anything Of course I feel for victims of crime, and I love to hear of those victims coming together For others, I feel ongoing sympathy. Some things in life are just too much to bear @Bobby Cole
You're so right @Patsy Faye . Unless we've been extremely lucky in life we're all victims of something. Some of us more than others, but to play the professional victim is like self flagellation..it achieves nothing but more pain not only for the victim but for those who they wish to draw into their sorrowful world... In life I have found that those who have the least to feel victimized about are the one who are most likely to be the biggest complainers. That's not to say those who have suffered shouldn't be allowed to talk of their experiences because without freedom of expression, there leads the road to mental instability , but to continually whip that same old dog is almost IMO like an act of sado/ masochism
I completely agree Holly. But let us not forget that the "professional" victim must have someone else to blame for his plight in life hence a large portion of what is called reverse discrimination. If a person can dump his problems onto someone else while making them feel guilty about those same problems then everyone gets to join the pity party. We must Pity the person who has been victimized and at the same time feel somehow ashamed whether we are a part of the problem or not. Simple and sweet.......it's a con job and I will not fall prey to it.
Uh huh. Like the thirty-five year old single parent who is working at McDonalds and complaining that she can't support her three kids on what McDonalds pays its entry-level or part-time employees. What choices did she make for her life to be thirty-five years old, single, with three kids, and without skills, and why is that anyone else's fault? Of course, there is also the problem that if you force McDonalds to pay its employees the equivalent of what someone might be expected to have earned after a ten years experience, or with a trade, then where are entry-level people supposed enter the workforce?
Ha!! Ken.... Incredibly, You've used a scenario I use almost to the letter when I'm discussing this type of problem with RL friends..
I could have worked harder in high school and gotten a scholarship for college, as my older brother did, but that was a choice that I made. My dad might have been able to help me some with tuition but his house burned to the ground during my second semester in college, and he was burned during the fire, and unable to go back to work. That wasn't anyone else's fault either. So I took whatever jobs were available to me, and left for something better whenever I couldn't see any new opportunities where I was. Rather than picketing a dead-end job, trying to make it something other than what it was, I looked for something better. When I found it, I made sure that I was at work every day, and that I was working harder than the people who I'd be competing against for promotions, even when it meant walking home four or five miles after work at 11:00 at night until I could afford something to drive. Rather than watching television, I went to school to learn how to weld when I found that this was a skill that would help me do better in my job. When it seemed that there would be no more future in the paper bag business, I went to school to learn to be an EMT, EMT-Special Skills, paramedic, and EMS instructor. I kept my eyes open for opportunities, and I guess I did okay. There are certainly a lot of people who have done better than I have, but I have had a reasonably good life, and I don't think that any of it came to me because I was white, or that there was no way for me to succeed because my parents were poor. Life isn't fair, and it doesn't even start out that way, but you've got to look for opportunities to improve from wherever you might have started out, and I really don't think these opportunities are denied someone because of their race, or their religion, or anything else. That may have been the case once, and in some places, but I don't think it is anymore. In fact, it works the other way now, given that employers and schools are given incentives for hiring favored classes of people. The racism that we have in society today, at least in this country, are government mandated rather than societal. Even then, there are ways around much of it. Since there are government incentives for women-owned businesses, guys simply put their businesses in their wife's name. It might be a little harder for white guys to pretend to be black in order to be given minority preferences, but Elizabeth Warren was able to pass herself off as a Native American. To be sure, some people may have more opportunities than you do, such as those who are born rich, or those who are simply born with inherent salable qualities that you might not have been blessed with, but there are ways that you can improve your position in life.
There is a story about the infamous Mayor LaGuardia who had to sit in as the graveyard judge on a very cold and snowy night. A man was brought before him who was charged with theft. He had apparently stolen a loaf of bread in order to feed his family. The good mayor said that because the loaf was recovered that he was going to suspend any sentence but did look at a full gallery of people (mostly trying to keep warm) and fined them 25 cents each for allowing such a thing to happen to another human. It's kind of shaky to me because bad things do happen to people and I can see why the man was allowed to go free, but to make others feel guilty about the man's plight isn't solving the problem.
Exactly Ken...and I have a similar tale to tell, as do many others as you rightly state, but we didn't make excuses for why we couldn't achieve the best we could achieve, regardless as to whether it was employment related or finding a home , raising children, or trying to stay away from criminal activity despite in many cases pressure either from peer groups or dire circumstances. ... yes there's blame to be attached sometimes... in my instance definitely , in that I'd have had an easier time all round if certain things out of my control hadn't occurred in my life... but they did occur and I was left alone to work it all out and to make the best of it, and that is precisely what I tried my best to do...pick yourself up, dust yourself down and don't go causing other innocent people to feel shame and or blame for other people's actions, and for your ( our) inability to deal with life.
I understand you completely Bobby. yes I feel for the man so desperate to feed his family, his only option is to steal the food...however for example my aforesaid Boss...she would steal the food even though she had no need for it.., and then manage to twist and turn the whole scenario so that everyone felt pity for her, and despise and disgust for the shopkeeper ...