Decadence of victimhood

More and more Americans are giving themselves over to the warm decadence of victimhood. Gone are this country's more republican days, when the working class fashioned a life from the honest friction of their hands against the earth.

Now we have machines to do the work for us. We do not strive, we slump on the couch, log onto the Internet and zone out. The closest we come to feeling is dragging ourselves once a week to codependency workshops where we yell and sob at stuffed animals that are supposed to represent our wounded inner children.

We are willing cripples, undulating piles of flesh, drones in a broad military-industrial complex that has scooped out our sense of individual striving and filled us with warm, gelatinous goo.

In fact, if I had to pick a date, I'd say America's ethos of self-creation formally died on July 24, 2002. That's when a group of short, stubby New Yorkers filed suit against McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King and KFC for making them fat.

Once upon a time, willingly puncturing one’s veins with a needle was considered an act of self-destruction. Today, we refer to it as a disease. The label "disease" is misleading insofar as there is no genetic explanation or medical treatment for drug addiction. So why do we call it a disease? For starters, calling addiction a disease takes away the onus of responsibility for the drug user. It makes him a victim. That makes it easier for the addict and his or her loved ones to digest an ugly situation. It also helps society sympathize with — and by extension, exhibit a greater willingness to suffer — the addict.

After all, what need is there for individual striving when it is plainly understood that all of our difficulties are the direct and indisputable result of our shared past? Meanwhile, our society grows ever more crippled by its apprehension toward personal responsibility. No doubt this is the clearest sign that our society is on the decline. 

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