Back in 1993, a book written by an art critic, Robert Hughes, was published that drew sharp criticism from various corners. I truly thought that Culture of Complaint was nothing but a heaping monologue of an author who was devoid of any insight into American way of life and focused on the mere negatives of societal degradation. Fast forward twenty-three years to an era of explosion of information, with world at the fingertips of an overwhelming number of people, and for many, world confined to their smartphones and tablets. I find myself to be wrong on how I have evaluated the Culture of Complaint. Actually in many ways, the book proves not only right in reflecting the popular and prevailing mood of the people, but also provides a window of opportunity for readers to assess and analyze the likely cause of frustration and complaint of people in the current time.
It's important to remember that there is a fine, often a gray, line that separates advocating for victims from the state of victimhood. Over the centuries of human history, inspirational leaders took stand to advocate for victims. Their overarching goals were always to provide dignity, honor and rights of people who had been subjugated to the dominance of others based on race, religion, color, or any other pretext. These leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela stood out to be aspirational, and always strived toward fighting against discrimination and levelling the field for all the people to have a society based on fairness, dignity and opportunity for all. Advocating for victims espouses a line of thought leadership that goes beyond just fighting against the culture discrimination of one segment of population by another, it also transcends into a vision that promotes hope, confidence and optimism among all the people. This takes guts and grits to move people forward as a whole, not defending one group of people against the rest. In the contrary, the state and culture of victimhood often emerges from thinking narrow and defensive. People who feel victim are the ones who are often afraid of changes that may be thrust upon them by circumstances, or other people such as immigrants, or political process. These people fear of losing their space to impending real, or imaginary, changes, and want to protect their way of life by adopting a protectionist line of defense. The state and culture of victimhood gives rise to extreme viewpoints to both left and right of political spectrum, leading to calls for building walls on the southern border, deporting millions of undocumented immigrants, imposing blanket ban on Muslim immigrants, putting up defense barrier against "micro-aggression" and creating so-called "safe space". The culture of victimhood over the time erodes the value and virtue of free society and, in an unintended consequence, gives rise to a political climate of fear and defeat.
It's important to remember that there is a fine, often a gray, line that separates advocating for victims from the state of victimhood. Over the centuries of human history, inspirational leaders took stand to advocate for victims. Their overarching goals were always to provide dignity, honor and rights of people who had been subjugated to the dominance of others based on race, religion, color, or any other pretext. These leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela stood out to be aspirational, and always strived toward fighting against discrimination and levelling the field for all the people to have a society based on fairness, dignity and opportunity for all. Advocating for victims espouses a line of thought leadership that goes beyond just fighting against the culture discrimination of one segment of population by another, it also transcends into a vision that promotes hope, confidence and optimism among all the people. This takes guts and grits to move people forward as a whole, not defending one group of people against the rest. In the contrary, the state and culture of victimhood often emerges from thinking narrow and defensive. People who feel victim are the ones who are often afraid of changes that may be thrust upon them by circumstances, or other people such as immigrants, or political process. These people fear of losing their space to impending real, or imaginary, changes, and want to protect their way of life by adopting a protectionist line of defense. The state and culture of victimhood gives rise to extreme viewpoints to both left and right of political spectrum, leading to calls for building walls on the southern border, deporting millions of undocumented immigrants, imposing blanket ban on Muslim immigrants, putting up defense barrier against "micro-aggression" and creating so-called "safe space". The culture of victimhood over the time erodes the value and virtue of free society and, in an unintended consequence, gives rise to a political climate of fear and defeat.
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