Great Societies always have grand visions for their future. Legendary civilizations have left behind timeless remnants of their larger-than-life visualization of social evolution in the form of monuments. We visit these as icons of ambition, courage, and ingenuity.
The modern world’s sole remaining Superpower swore by a self-empowering social contract called “The Great American Dream.” They created this idea based on their vision of self-sustaining greatness and belief in merit. They conceptualized this vision despite many existing challenges. Almost a century of world domination later, many of the original challenges still exist. Yet, until recently, those challenges were never seen as defining attributes of the American nation.
With the end of the Second World War, certain sections of global societies began to transfigure into “Victim” groups. No doubt, many individuals from these groups were genuinely aggrieved as individuals, however as groups, these became weapons of political action in the hands of deep state actors, deployed in many narrative wars. Thus, permanently volatile cauldrons of social friction took shape. They were always ready for activation as pressure groups, aiding and abetting geopolitical and societal anarchy.
Many of these Victim groups eventually established themselves as perennial flashpoint generators within the target nations.
Feminism, Minority rights, Religious phobia, Religious oppression, Racism, Gender Neutrality, Sectarian rights, etc., the list kept growing as new offshoots of existing narratives took birth or completely new constructs emerged from hitherto unknown “misery collectives.”
What are the common attributes of “Victim” groups that differentiate them from genuine social movements like freedom struggles against colonial powers, campaigns against social evils, and other reformist movements? Firstly, most genuine social movements have a defined and tangible objective. More often than not, these objectives are achievable within a fixed period. Victim groups, on the other hand, have perpetual agendas. There is never an end in sight. There is never a stop date for any Victim movement. Victims of such movements themselves get consumed as fuel for the continous survival of these groups.
For example, let’s look at Feminism. What is the end goal for a feminist? What are the benchmarks of change that most self-proclaimed feminists set for any society that they wish to see reformed? These questions rarely elicit a definitive, objective answer. Equality and respect seem to lose prominence against the drive to deride the other gender. As vengeance for all the wrongs done to womanhood, often an unfortunate male victim ends up finding himself facing a feminist raging with fire. She is eager to prove herself a worthy member of the movement. Hence, videos regularly emerge on social media showing women unleashing disproportionately violent – verbal and physical attacks on an unlucky male subject. The helpless man, more often than not, seems straight-jacketed into remaining docile in the face of unrelenting abuse due to penal laws(like in India) or societal pressures that condition him to endure quietly. Normalization of such violence by increasingly pliant societies leads to an ever widening divide among the sexes. Such deep divisions, in many ways, cause grave harm to the very victims for whom Feminism claims to aspire emancipation. Also, at an ideological level, how can a movement founded on the ideological grounds of resisting injustice and unfair treatment of women rejoice in the infliction of the same abuse on the other side?
Meanwhile crimes against females are going through the roof in Western countries where Feminism took birth. Also, victims get subjected to even more hate due to an ever-growing number of impostors attempting to cash in on an opportunity to exploit gender privilege.
The emergence of Victim groups in a hyper-diverse, democratic nation such as India can have the same impact as introducing an invasive species in a rich, bio-diverse forest. Every creature in the native forest is almost always in a synergetic relationship with another living organism or system. Similarly, all unique social groups within India’s myriad social structures have an enduring yet delicate balance with each other. The emotional base of India’s culture is the ability to find joy in the face of nerve-wracking adversity and struggle for basic dignity. This knack of clinging to positivity allowed its diverse metropolitan cities to earn titles such as “city of joy” and “city that keeps going” while sustaining vast populations pulling through without basic necessities in most cases.
What happens when the politics of appeasement and victimhood cross the epidemic threshold? What happens when such a situation forces each individual in India to find his or her place within a Victim group to keep their political value as a voter from falling below zero? We are already witnessing signs of this imminent trend through recent mass movements by upper-caste communities, demanding their inclusion in affirmative action quotas for education and employment. Not belonging to an oppressed section of society is increasingly being perceived as a cue for not receiving any attention from political authorities. What happens when every community starts making such demands? The pie of benefits from the Welfare state is not an infinite one. This state of potential beneficiaries outnumbering the resources available to cater to their needs may lead to perpetual struggle and enmity among communities. Who will work for the nation’s development and growth in such a country? Who will compete on the world stage?
Despite being the dominant force for the past 100 years, the USA shows signs of an impending social implosion. A significant contributor to this probable catastrophe is the ever-mutating barrage of Victim groups emerging there. In its drive to become the ultimate egalitarian society, the United States now looks like one that cannot accommodate any more individual liberty. Instead, it has become a cesspool of socially corrosive narratives, swallowing within them values like reason and objectivity, which the founders of that nation propagated in their beautiful Declaration of Independence in 1776.
The world must learn from the disaster America is so close to becoming—a disaster solely manifested due to its obsession with Victim groups. This obsession originated from its deep state establishment, where it began being used as a covert propaganda tool to rein in non-compliant nations. Unfortunately, the fire repeatedly lit overseas blew back home.
However, other nations cannot allow these embers of victim grouping to consume their societies. Instead, they need to focus on time-bound justice for actual sufferers of tragedy, oppression, and crime.
No Nation must be a Victim Nation!!