Unholy Alliances

For example, during the Middle Ages, a number of good Christians decided that the Devil was directing an international conspiracy. This conspiracy recruited certain women or witches in order to destroy Christian souls and society. Oddly enough, many women regretted their role in the conspiracy and confessed to being in league with Satan or possessed by the Devil. Their unholy alliance accounted for sicknesses, plagues of rats and frogs, storms at sea, crop failures and the like. Although a number of women and men were disposed of in rather unpleasant ways, little record exists regarding the Christian victims of this international conspiracy and one can hope that after multiple tortures, burning and hangings, the Devil lost his stranglehold on feudal society.

Coinciding with the need to banish satanic practices of witchcraft and eliminate the threat poised by heretics and godless pagans was the issue of Judaism. In spite of numerous attempts to limit and restrict the machinations of the Jews, they were thought to engage in oppressive, anti-Christian activities during the Middle Ages. Many people believed they spread the black plague, sacrificed Christian infants, and persecuted Christ through desecrating the host!

However, it was not until 1905 that the nature of their international conspiracy came to light. The publication of the infamous forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion purported to reveal details of an international Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world. Self-proclaimed victims of Jewish oppression firmly believed that Jews controlled the press and subverted governments through their nefarious mercantile and banking practices. Others sought to preserve their racial purity and prevent Semitic contamination through the practice of ethnic cleansing. This particular practice reached its height during the second World War, possibly due to a widespread belief in racial inferiority and the notion that Jews were responsible for the Great Depression of the 1930's.

Subsequent to the elimination of most European Jews, the evil empire of the Soviet Union and it's international Communistic conspiracy assumed the role of scapegoats and evil doers determined to destroy Christian society and the free world.

The Blame Game

This brings us to a defining aspect of victim consciousness; the idea that someone or something is responsible for the victimisation, oppression or damage of an individual or group. Although, one may not go so far as to blame an international conspiracy of witches, demons, Jews, godless communists, or greedy capitalists for one's misery, one of the characteristics of VC is the need to find an oppressor. The desire to blame someone or something is so common that a considerable number of political parties, reform movements, and social conflicts are based on the notion that those who currently hold power are responsible for the damage, or lack of progress of an individual, group, or country.

The accepted practice of blame placing, and finger pointing often characterise political activities and generally encourages bureaucracies, authority figures, and VIPs to frantically search for fall guys to take the heat or distract the masses. This may be why political leaders hire spin doctors to put a favourable face on their activities. It probably accounts for why we are inclined to blame the messenger for news we don't like, while expecting the media to dig up dirt about our adversaries.

The need to avoid blame is another characteristic of victim consciousness, for if you are a helpless victim, how can you be held accountable for anything? The nearly universal practice of passing the buck in administrative, political and economic hierarchies has its antecedents in the child who maintains that her brother started the fight that resulted in the near destruction of their bedroom. "It wasn't my fault!" or "she did it first!" is a form of buck passing that started with Adam and Eve and a cunning snake. It shows no sign of abating and may be one of the reasons why we have never made it back to the garden, nor created heaven on earth.

Varieties of Victim Consciousness

Although VC has mythical, social and political uses, it plays a definite role in our personal lives. This particular form of consciousness takes several forms, first the traditional "I'm not OK, You're not OK and its some ones fault!" This encourages an individual to search for a group of like-minded victims and join forces with them against a mutual oppressor. If the oppressor appears too powerful to challenge, the victim group can perfect their skills of "Ain't it or they awful." and reinforce their collective status as victims. Another form of victim consciousness is "I'm not OK, and you are to blame!" The shortened version of VC can result in paranoid delusions, encourage divorce and promote family violence. It may also be responsible for a large number of petty lawsuits clogging up our civil courts.

My favorite form of VC is "I'm not OK. You are not OK and it's all my fault." Here, personal guilt, shame and a heightened sense of responsibility open the door to depression, self-hatred and co-dependent relationships. Because it is so easy to find something or someone to blame for most of our shortcomings, the traditional and shortened forms of VC are the most common. However, if you are in the unfortunate position of blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong, you may be simultaneously playing the role of victim and oppressor . A friend of mine reminded me that men are profoundly skilled in the traditional and shortened forms of VC.

Blame The Victim

Sally's Story

Once upon a time there was a little girl with one arm. She was very skilled with her single arm and it never occurred to her that being one armed was anything but an inconvenience. She was raised in a happy and loving household and though her parents and siblings all had two arms, Sally, simply assumed that they were different from her. Poor, naive Sally had not reached that state of maturity where being different was the same as being wrong, or bad, or damaged in some way. Like most pre-school children she thought she was all right the way she was.

All of this changed on her first day of school. When her mother went in to register Sally, the admitting officer took one look and suggested that Sally might need to be in a "special class" for disabled, special needs students. Although Sally was quite aware that she was "special" she didn't see herself as having any special needs. She became aware that the very caring and compassionate admission's officer was more concerned with her missing arm than with the rest of her body, not to mention her mind or spirit.

Time passed and Sally learned to ignore the teasing of her fellow students, the pitying glances of her teachers and hushed whispers of, "Poor little girl, I wonder what happened to her? Was she in an accident or was she born that way?" Although Sally's mother and father continued to treat her as their own special child, by the time Sally turned 12, she was convinced of her own inferiority and highly resentful of her parents for not recognising her difficulties or helping her more.

She passed through the trauma of puberty by adopting a conventional adolescent posture of icy contempt for adult authority and cultivated an "it doesn't matter. I don't care " attitude. However, by the time Sally turned 19, she was ready to embark on the adventure of adulthood. She sued her parents and birth doctor for failing to prevent the prenatal trauma which resulted in her being born with only one arm. It is rumoured that the out of court settlement was in excess of a million dollars.

Fallacy of Misplaced Power

At this juncture, I expect to hear some moderately outraged screams from those whose primary task in life seems to be the identification and rescue of socially, physically, financially, mentally or psychologically disadvantaged individuals. These champions of oppressed and marginalized classes are quick to uphold the RIGHTS of VICTIMS! They are rightfully suspicious of any attempt to minimise the horrific treatment or sheer neglect of impaired persons. However, as much as I recognise and applaud the heroic efforts of those who are determined to level the Social/Political/Economic playing field and provide care for distressed individuals, I do not believe it is advantageous for anybody to identify themselves as a victim!

Those who dwell overmuch on their trials and tribulations, not only are likely to irritate their friends, they tend to believe in the fallacy of misplaced power. This particular fallacy is rooted in the belief that somebody or something outside of one's self is capable of doing what the victim can't do for herself! True believers in this notion tend to divide the world between those who have power and those who don't. They generally assume that people with power can and should alleviate the victim's distress and often take advantage of well meaning helpers or rescuers. I ran into one such victim while visiting an elderly patient at an extended care hospital.

Because the nursing home was too understaffed to allow for one on one counselling or much emotional support, the patient's family asked me to do what I could to ease her stress. She was suffering from the ravages of Alzheimer's and on this particular occasion was too anxious and confused to respond to me. Feeling sad and frustrated, I left her room and saw another resident of the facility, Mary, clinging to the sleeve of a visitor. This particular resident was pleading with the visitor to help her go home. When the visitor said she was sorry but couldn't help; Mary responded by pointing her finger, blocking the visitor's passage, saying," If you really wanted to help, you would! I knew the moment I saw you that you only cared for yourself and that you were a heartless and uncaring person!"

At this point, I intervened, gently removed Mary's hand from the embarrassed visitor's sleeve and escorted her into a quiet room. I thought if I could get her to talk about herself and what she enjoyed doing, she would be less anxious and demanding. My plan worked for a while, but then she returned to the subject of needing help. She said she had to go to a house to cook dinner for some guests and it was very important she be there on time. I asked her where the house was, she didn't know. I asked her what the people's names were and what time she had to be there. She didn't know that either. When I pointed out that I couldn't find the house unless I had some names and an address she became quite agitated and said," If you really cared, you would look up the address and call them!" She continued in this vein for a while, informing me that I was "an unfeeling, heartless woman who only pretended to care!"

Feeling irritated with her whining, criticism and disregard for common courtesy, I got up and walked away. Unfortunately, not all of the residents could avoid Mary that easily. I was about to leave the extended care facility, when I saw her confronting another resident. The bewildered woman was trapped in a corner; her wheelchair backed up against the wall. She stared blankly at the vociferous Mary, who's high pitched whine resembled a cat's midnight screeching. Mary was waving her hands in the trapped woman's face, telling her to "Get up out of that wheelchair! If you really cared, you would get up and help me!"

Assumptions and Helplessness

Although not many would go so far as to expect a paraplegic to get out of her wheelchair and help them, I suspect few of us are immune to the lure of righteous victimhood or the fallacy of misplaced power. It is a common human failing to assume that others are obliged to assist us in times of trouble, that friends and family should cater to our needs, politicians should keep our world safe and if people really cared they would do what we wanted. It is natural to assume our lives are the pivot, around which the world revolves and expect the universe to respond to our desires. Human beings are inclined to measure the performance, virtues, standards and motives of others by a personal yardstick. I've heard it said, "a barbarian is someone who believes the customs of his campfire are identical with the laws of the universe!

I suspect this peculiar reasoning is behind most of the assumptions we make regarding each other. So often we take the compliance of others for granted, assume we know how people should behave or what's motivating them when they don't. Meanwhile, many of us stress our limitations, our powerlessness, our shame and our guilt, and become victims of our own prejudices and expectations. It is then we look for a handy oppressor, a villain in our life, a disabling disease, a miscarriage of justice, some fatal flaw in ourselves or our world; abandoning our emotional health and spiritual wholeness in the process.

Perspective and Image

Nevertheless, if you want to be sane, spiritually developed, and have a life of your own, you need to curb your faultfinding side and avoid playing the victim! This is a necessary step in nurturing a potent, life-affirming, confident and dynamic Self-image! Such an image is undermined by any belief system that stresses incapacity, helplessness, or disadvantages. People almost always perceive what they look for and if you are looking for wrongs, injustices, cruelty or misery, you will most certainly find them. If you are looking for people to blame, you will find them, and if you focus your attention on the evils and negativity of any system or of life in general, you will drape your soul in shadow and rarely, if ever, see the light.

This does not mean that injustice, cruelty, oppression and misery don't exist, they do, but you will not remedy these ills by playing the game of "Poor Me/Poor You"; "Ain't it Awful" and "Its all Their Fault"! You can substitute your favourite oppressor, be it government, environmentalists, corporate interests, capitalists, Liberals, Conservatives, drug dealers, welfare bums, men, teenagers, criminals and so on and so on and so on for the illusive They.

The essence of victim consciousness is a sense of grievance and helplessness. Such emotions eventually corrode our spirits and poison our capacity to love and trust. They make us hypersensitive to the slightest suggestion of injustice, rejection or loss of face, while encouraging us to ignore or deny our strengths. Perhaps the most dangerous form of victim consciousness is to believe we can improve our situation by getting rid of the bad guys. The real horror of such witch hunts is that we will never run out of enemies, flaws, personal weaknesses or targets for our grievances and will confuse doing good with getting rid of evil.