UNFAIRNESS LENS FOSTERS VICTIMIZATION

UNFAIRNESS LENS FOSTERS VICTIMIZATION

By Domenick Maglio Ph.D. Traditional Realist

Humans are imperfect beings. Most of us have awakened on the wrong side of the bed being less than pleasant for a period of time. There are people that are habitually nasty, even evil and others who are saint like.  One thing for sure, no one is perfect.

Any person regardless of religion, social class, ethnicity, gender or race will experience unfairness in their lives. Life is unfair even for the most seemingly fortunate. The local newspapers are full of prominent role models having personal set backs that precipitated their taking their own lives instead of resolving the issue that they considered unfair. It is the way each of us handles unfairness that determines how it affects our outlook on life. Becoming upset by every idiotic thing a person hears from others about a group they belong to places them on a path to be a perennial victim.

The majority of our higher education institutions are promoting a victimization agenda. They have adopted a model of psychological and sociological studies to attract and retain students. Women, Black, LGTB and Ethnic Studies were nonexistent in classical liberal arts programs. The introduction of these “studies” has indoctrinated students to perceive our institutions as systematically unjust to certain groups.

The phony studies and exploitive community leaders have encouraged students to use the rearview mirror. They believe all sorts of real and imaginary past abuses of their identified group are harming them and others. Supposedly these past injustices are preventing the members from living the “good life.”.

Being a member of a self-identified group does not give them the right to be discriminatory and hostile to those not belonging to the group.  Being intolerant and vindictive to members of another group perceived to be an adversary does not increase understanding but further divides the group. Developing a lens in students that emphasizes distorted unfairness fans the flames producing alienation and personal hatred and destroys national harmony. 

Progressive professor’s selective victimization propaganda has not assisted students searching for the truth but has hindered them.  It only establishes a warped perception of the members of the other group. There is no attempt to strengthen the intellect of the student to solve his own problems in the future. Rather it reinforces the internalizing of the blaming other groups or of the entire system for the individual’s difficulties in life. Instead of taking actions in one’s life to create a positive outlook and one’s own peaceful sanctuary they continue to direct anger at others.

A person who experiences an obviously ridiculous statement about his group should just ignore it.  Consider the source. Usually the person is being baited to react inappropriately. The individual’s calm, non-reaction of the ignorant person’s attempt to insult leaves him in control repelling future attempts by the perpetrator.

A mature person also learns not to look back to excuse himself from his own mistakes and failures. Blaming his behavior on the inadequacies of his parent’s raising of him or those of society in general does nothing to improve his situation. Taking responsibility for his own decisions and learning from them is a formula for being successful.  Picking oneself up by one’s own bootstraps is the American way.

A person who knows his own character and understands his actions is shielded from getting sucked into negative group think scripts that paint everyone outside the group as the insensitive oppressor. Nor should a person in a group accept negative stereotypes as valid, instead they should be motivated to try harder to prove these perceptions wrong for him and other members of the group.

This strategy of holding oneself and other members accountable for their own actions improves the overall group’s standards and status. This approach begins the process of being more acceptable and respectable to others allowing them to merge with the rest of society.

Concentrating on one’s freedom to do better rather than fantasizing on a utopian fairness, produces effective and independent citizens. It empowers individuals to change the course of their lives. No one can be a victim when the unfairness of living is overcome by intense striving to be the best one can become. 

Dr. Maglio is an author and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. You can visit Dr. Maglio at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.