The 'Virtue' of Parasitic Victimhood

Upon reading No Apologies: Why Civilization Depends on the Strength of Men by Anthony Esolen, a man expressed to me that he was indignant “on behalf of women”. I, however, despite being a woman, was not offended or insulted by Esolen’s work. The book merely describes truths about the importance of men in building a society, from the practicalities of building pipelines and aqueducts to the paternal guidance in parenting.

I don’t feel threatened by a work that describes the benefits of men, because I don’t get my sense of purpose by eviscerating different functions of others. I think one of the best quotes by Reagan was, “We have so many people who can’t see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion that the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one.” As the decades have passed, this error has only taken on new dimensions. Today, to applaud one group’s virtues is to supposedly castigate another’s, depending on what victim group each belongs to.

Therefore, by applauding men accurately, it is interpreted that one must be insulting or demeaning women. Similarly, by discussing the features of Western art, it is presumed that one believes there to be no value in Asian art. What’s interesting is that this occurs regardless of whether the supposed ‘victims’ are offended at all.

What’s actually happening in these indignation-by-proxy cases is an attempt by the individual to claim virtue by association with the ‘victim’ group. Thus we see again how victimhood has become something of a currency and is therefore sought. To embrace victimhood is effeminacy, the actual opposite of masculinity (not femininity, which is a virtuous embrace of womanhood). In an effeminate state, a man rejects his masculine drives to repair, lead, assist, and conquer, replacing them with a completely useless unity with docility.

By embracing and uniting oneself with victimhood, he may feel comfortable in his inaction, because in the case of true victims, it is the moral duty of others to come to their aid. Women in western society are not victims, however, and these effeminate men know that. Women are simply not men — and they do not need to become men to have value. Further, men having virtues does not make women less valuable in their own right. So, some people push to make them into victims, with emotional pleas and proclamations, specifically so that they can gain power.

In what seems paradoxical, victimhood is power in modernity. Therefore, those who can and will fix things and make changes are marginalized for doing so. In a world of only oppressors and victims, few want to lead, lest they become accused of the former. Such explains so much of modern society. It’s easier to complain, and it comes with societal advantage if you can align yourself with a victim group. Action requires effort, and leads to condemnation. A healthy society would reward innovation, success, and productivity, if only because they represent the embrace of virtues that we wish to encourage.

Those who enjoy our current structure of society want victim groups, else they lose their parasitic source of power, and the excuse for their own unproductivity. Our societal decline is thus reinforced and maintained by the laziest and least virtuous members of society.