[December 18, 2014] Americans like their leaders and their heroes to be bold, tough, and brave. We all loved John Wayne in those action war movies, especially when he led a desperate group of men to attack the enemy bad guys. My personal favorite is The Green Berets starring John Wayne, David Janssen, and Jim Hutton. But playing the victim is something that real leaders would never do because trolling for pity from others is simply not dignified behavior.
To illustrate, most Americans grew up learning about the exploits of Teddy Roosevelt, Army Colonel with the Rough Riders and President of the United States. He displayed the bold-tough-brave characteristics in everything he did. Remember the saying to “speak softly and carry a big stick?” This was President Roosevelt’s style of foreign policy and applicable to the way he practiced leadership. He expected to no one to cut him any slack and he gave none. In doing so he got things done. He practiced an outgoing leadership style that gained him fans all across the globe.
It has been noticed that Americans, despite their love of tough leaders, have of late been using victimization to gain sympathy, usually for their personal failures. It seems that many of us didn’t get the memo; failure is a part of life and something that helps us grow, enhance our resiliency, and improves our likelihood of future success.
Some of us would rather make excuses for failure than to do something about it and that is where victimization comes into play. If we show that our failure is the result of some outside force, then it’s not our fault. The argument goes something like this; people will love us for being survivor of (fill in the blank here) and we therefore are not accountable for our mistakes and failures.
“You know what. Life is too short, don’t complain, don’t hate, and don’t argue. No one is stifling you except yourself, and if you think otherwise: Who do you think controls your actions, your thoughts, and your patterns? You do! Stop being the victim and start being the solution.” – Unknown
Being a victim, today in the United States, provides status and privilege. The federal government recognizes various victim classes of people and has actually given preference to people of government-selected victim status. For example, racial preferences were used to obtain certain jobs. Quota systems based on a specific class was common. The latest cause célèbre of government victimhood are illegal (currently called undocumented) immigrants. Special attention is paid to them and they are given privileges, like in-state tuition for going to college, which even citizens do not enjoy.
Playing the victim is actually an attempt to gain an undeserved advantage. For leaders this would be disgraceful and undignified, and they are rightly subject to losing credibility and respect. We are taught that pity is for the poor and with it comes an obligation to help. That is not how we look at pity today.
Victimhood today in America is for the lazy and ungrateful. My opinion is that citizens need to get over themselves and government should get out of the victimhood game – that’s the American way and it works.
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