Never give up! Never surrender!

First off, congratulations on your success thus far; getting one sponsor to pull their ads from Letterman’s show may not seem like much to you, but that’s a lot more than I honestly expected to see happen. You might actually be on to something with this approach.

However, there is a problem that you seem to be running into, namely the utter abhorrence that most conservatives have for victimhood. To put it simply, it is widely held on this side of the political spectrum that thinking of oneself as a victim will always, always, always lead to profound unhappiness, because it means acknowledging that someone else is in control of some aspect of your life. This is considered to be true even if the person in question really is a victim—some might say especially so. Thus, in the eyes of many on the Right, you are doing the Palins a disservice by encouraging them to think of themselves as victims.

(Sorry if that came off as talking down my nose at you—I’m fairly new to the blogosphere, and I’m still learning the rules, if you will.)

It’s not “a few fanatics” on the Right that believe that, it’s a core principle of conservatism. People who believe that they are victims tend to think that they are entitled to something that someone else has denied them; as a result of this, there is a tendency to focus on forcing someone else to “make” you happy, rather than improving one’s own lot in life (because why should I improve my own life when it’s somebody else’s fault that I’m miserable?). It starts a cycle of dissatisfaction: when you neutralize one oppressor, there is a tendency to find another, then another, then another, until one becomes mired in an obsession with correcting every perceived slight, instead of focusing on what can actually bring real happiness (family, friendship, religion—basically, any social institution that encourages one to place the needs and desires of others over those of oneself).

So what do those on the Right do when they are victimized? They gripe about it for a while, and then return their focus to those social institutions that produce real happiness and satisfaction—which, not surprisingly, is exactly what most on the Right want to do. In other words, they don’t want David Letterman or his employers to be the one who decides if they’re happy with their life, because that means giving up autonomy.

I’m not saying that this should apply in this instance; what I’m saying is that you’re going to have to convince conservatives that this is more than just an attempt to enable the Palins to feel sorry for themselves (the fact that they obviously don’t feel that way should go a long way towards helping in this). Basically, what I’m saying is that you’ve got to convince conservatives that this is a valid exception to the otherwise ironclad “victimhood = bad” rule, because to most of them, that is not self-evident.

Hi Kwakerjak,
I get your point and largely agree that the victimhood trope drains indivduals of the can-do attitude necessary to improving ones own lot in life. But it seems the case of getting Letterman fired is more in line with Syd’s post. We’re not crying about Letterman being biased. We say he’s crossed a line of decency, and Cynthia’s campaign is about enforcing that line in the public square. Standing up for Willow Palin (and necessarily covering Sarah Palin’s backside by protecting her family a bit in the process) is not the same as screaming ‘he’s being mean to conservatives’. No victimhoood mindset=no foul.

Excellent discussion. I found a link to this site over at a blog by SYD on Team Sarah. I have been trying to figure out why the conservatives give up so easily and this explanation about victimhood does make sense. I for one do not accept Letterman’s apology as authentic and until he is fired the battle has not been won. For one thing, this is not just about Sarah Palin, it is about all women and girls; see my article on my blog “War on White Women.” (http://helpmejoseph.typepad.com/puma_for_life/2009/06/war-on-white-woman.html)
Also, I have reported on the rally and let people know there is another one in Texas this Saturday.

Please Join The American Conservative Alliance for the following event:

Fire David Letterman Rally

Saturday, June 20th

10:00 AM till Noon

Meet in front of:
CBS affiliate KBTX-TV Channel 3
4141 E. 29th Street
Bryan, TX 77802
(Less than 5 minutes from the Texas A&M University Campus.)

For more information contact Mark Gillar
mark@americanconservativealliance.org

If you can’t make the Rally, at least log on to our Email Blaster
and let Letterman’s advertisers know how you feel:
.-= Puma for Life´s last blog ..Fire David Letterman rally in NYC today: Update: New Video: Harriet Christian =-.

HILLBUZZ is a favorite blog of mine. And I had read the Grey article. It is great, as to the way forward.

But what I am really wondering is… how did the party of my grandparents get so ineffective? What is the underlying belief system that renders them impotent?

I think Kwakerjak is on to somthing. And I also think the “no victimhood” mentality of the Right shares a certain kind of wishful thinking with the O-bot Left. I’ll hope for “Change” is, if you will, the mirror image of “I”ll decide who can oppress me.”

It’s kind of like they both listened to MLK’s “I have a Dream” speech and thought they could stop there… with the dream.

As if just dreaming it will make it so.
.-= SYD´s last blog ..The Nature of Evil, The Will to Take Action, and How New Age Thinking has Infiltrated the Right. (Day 8 in the Letterman Situation) =-.