"U.S. society is in the midst of a large-scale moral change in which we are experiencing the emergence of a victimhood culture that is distinct from the honor cultures and dignity cultures of the past. If true, this bodes really bad for future social and political peace."
The concept of victimhood has been talked about for some time but this is a new attempt at context and definition.
(For mine, feminists long postulated that a world ruled by women would be free from war. They failed to add that it wouldn't be free from conflict.)
Original paper noted at Reason
1 comment:
The "honour" system can be seen as a sliding scale.. at one end there was a man, a wife and family and little outside law. The man contracted with his wife and the church (in many/most cases) to protect her and the children with his body and his life. We can still see this system in some primitives and Islam.
In the West a good example of this was the Age of Chivalry and the Wild West where the same held but with increasing law enforcement.. the honour system had evolved somewhat.
But by the 20th century the system has evolved much more to the point where the law was paramount and a man's old honour system had become increasingly outdated.. we've tended to ridicule the worst elements of it as womens' lib took off.
But what we forget is that Chivalry was a *system* in which everyone knew their place; the men earned the bread and protected family and others less fortunate and the wife was conspicuously faithful, raised the kids and kept the house.
But today can you see whats happened? The man's sliding scale has gone from one extreme to the other but the woman's scale hasn't moved anything like as much for far too many.. she should be equal to the man in protecting her rights and carrying out much more of the man's old responsibilities yet she still insists the man protect her.
In the US colleges the girl has the right to get drunk and have consensual sex but if she later regrets it she can accuse him of rape because he took advantage of her drunkenness.. the same defense is not available to him.
I might add that many men are also claiming something of the same victimisation.. especially in matters of race, religion or sexuality.
In fact I hesitate to call this new thing as victimology.. it has much more to do with malice and utu... even a way of compensating for personal problems like some degree of mental illness.
JC
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