QandO

June 10, 2004

The cult of the "victim"
Posted by McQ

Jeffry Gardner does an excellet job in the Albuquerque Tribune of shredding the myth that its corporations that make us all fat, stupid or lazy but instead our own poor choices.

I know, you'd think this argument wouldn't have to be made, you'd think it was self-evident, but then you have to remember we live in a world where everyone is now a victim and the mantle of victimhood requires all your ills be the fault of someone or something else. Gardner goes after an LA Time review of a documentary by a guy named Morgan Spurlock called "Super Size Me". Spurlock, it seems, came up with a 'clever' way to prove its McDonald's fault that people are fat:

He cheap-shots one of the left's favorite targets, McDonald's. Among other things, Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald's for 30 days.

Skipping the salads and sticking to burgers, shakes and fries, Spurlock got fat. Apparently this was a big surprise, because it's been treated as big news that McDonald's made him fat.

Big surprise indeed. As Gardner points out:

Spurlock's "discovery" ranks right up there with the discoveries that drinking beer 24/7 makes you drunk and fat; lying around on the couch eating Oreos and watching television makes you, uh, atrophied and fat, I guess; and snorting cocaine for long periods of time makes you jicky and fat.

Again, I know its surprising that this even has to be said or pointed out, but, unfortunately it does.

What Spurlock doesn't do, obviously, is point out that he, and only he, made the decision, made the choice, to eat what he ate where he ate it for those 30 days.

McDonald's certainly didn't. Ronald didn't show up with a shotgun each morning and force Spurlock to gorge on fries, burgers and shakes ... Spurlock did it all by himself.

That being said, it still easier to blame all that fat on McDonalds, isn't it?

Spurlock's message?

What caught my eye in the L.A. Times' review was the mention that Spurlock's acclaimed film carried a message about personal and corporate responsibility.

"Corporate responsibility." There it was - the out we need to excuse ourselves from accepting ultimate responsibility for our actions.

That these sorts of "documentaries" are given any credibility still staggers me to this day. Maybe its my inability to "think" as those who push the victimhood meme, i.e. divorce myself from any thought of personal responsiblity for my existence and choices, and conveniently blame all my ills on others. How does one rationally do that?

Well, obviously that's a rhetorical question.

One can't rationally do that. One must emotionally deal with the subject in order to delude themselves into "believing" the cult of victimhood has validity.

However Gardner sums up reality quite nicely. Describing his evolution into a rational human being some 16 years ago, he describes his discovery:

For 16 years, then, I've learned and tried to accept that my actions or inactions have shaped my life. As a result, today I have a hard time letting myself off the hook for my poor choices.

If I'm sucked in by a slick Madison Avenue ad campaign, wheel my kids to Mickey D's and let 'em eat fries, that's my fault.

And while there are things I can't control, 99.9 percent of what goes on in my life - good or bad - is a result of my decisions, not a corporation's board of directors.

Excellent article, excellent points ... alas, totally lost on the cult of the vicitm.

TrackBack