Glenn Greenwald over at Unclaimed Territory has a post up titled “The significance of the Edwards story” and I want to take a look at not just that post, but the phenomena he discusses. Though a more thorough essay on the topic will have to wait for another time we can take a fast look now.
The common divisions of Republican/Democrat and Left/Right are useful on some topics but they break down when we are talking about some aspects of fundamental worldview. Instead there is one more distinction we need to look at and that is victim/mover.
In the current societal landscape we see victims all around us in every nook and cranny. These are the people who routinely complain about vast conspiracies aligned against them. The situation is always desperate and the solution never seems to be within reach. This worldview is one of despair and when it does act those activities are almost exclusively one of protest against the current circumstances (real or imagined) without any realistic alternative to offer. We see it in radical feminism, in radical environmentalists, in rabid anti-war activists and of course we see it in the far religious right as well.
The victim worldview does not have an answer because it does not seek or reward an answer. It is motivated by a love of powerlessness. These people define themselves as victims and revel in the freedom they then have. Freedom from responsibility for the world as it is, freedom from the responsibility to make it better and the moral freedom in their own minds to lash out in any manner they choose. They don’t offer an answer because frankly there is no payoff in a practical answer. it is critical to their self image that they always be the underdog.
To bring this back to the topic at hand I will posit a theory. Currently the political left in the USA is populated with a much higher proportion of victims than the political right is. That’s obviously a generalization, but it is a valid one. Further, it fits the evidence. I believe those like Glenn Geeenwald when they look over the efficacy of the right versus the left at this time. The right is much more effective in shaping the discourse and in enacting its will. The reason is simple.
Those driven by the victim mentality are inherently ineffective at conceiving of or enacting solutions.
The ideologies that currently make up the left are inherently victim rewarding. In fact they have almost no other salve to offer. Their only power lies in their validation of a worldview that embraces powerlessness and demands that someone or some institution make it all better. To the extent that the Democratic party has drawn from this leftist ideology they have been saddled with these people. They complain endlessly against anyone outside or inside the Democratic party who they see as insufficiently conciliatory to their pain. The result is a party that is crippled by a dead weight of people who complain and attack but have no plan, vision or capacity for action.
To head off the obvious rebuttal by the way large ineffectual protests that have no concrete goals or agendas are not an example of action. They are an example of masturbatory complaint and reveling in ones shared victimhood. Look at any large leftist protest gathering and you will see a huge number of fringe people who are effectively professional protesters. They no real social network outside of protest and know of no other way to feel alive or robust except in their complaining. It is for this reasons so many of them embrace so many issues that are futile and pointless. The more issues, the more opportunities to protest!
Currently the centrist right is the place for those with the will, energy and predilection to self actualize. We accomplish, we improve. We are not waiting to be saved and we are not crushed under the weight of our own self imposed feelings of oppression.
Is there any wonder that it is these people who shape discourse while the others are flounderingly ineffective?
p.s. this article has been posted to my John Edwards campaign site diary as well. Feel free to check out the comments there as well.
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