18AR23-38

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AR 23:38 - Reversing the pull of victimhood culture

In this issue:

CULTURE - "this may be the most important book of the year"

+ a cold rejection of attempts to resolve our culture's conflict

Apologia Report 23:38 (1,404)

November 14, 2018

CULTURE

The Rise of Victimhood Culture: Microaggressions, Safe Spaces, and the New Culture Wars, by Bradley Campbell (Associate Professor of Sociology at California State University, Los Angeles) and Jason Manning (Associate Professor of Sociology at West Virginia University) [1] -- the publisher says it provides "a framework for understanding recent moral conflicts at U.S. universities, which have bled into society at large. These are not the familiar clashes between liberals and conservatives or the religious and the secular: instead, they are clashes between a new moral culture - victimhood culture - and a more traditional culture of dignity. Even as students increasingly demand trigger warnings and 'safe spaces,' many young people are quick to police the words and deeds of others, who in turn claim that political correctness has run amok. Interestingly, members of both camps often consider themselves victims of the other."

Choice (Sep '18): "Comprehensive, measured, and well researched, this may be the most important book of the year. [The authors] trace the history and development of 'victimhood culture' in the US and the culture wars that have engulfed the country as a result of that victimhood mentality. The authors do a masterful job of explaining the nation's shift from a culture of honor, to a culture of dignity, to one of victimhood. The last is marked by hypersensitivity to any perceived slight and often leads to exaggeration and the need to publicly highlight one's victimization through appeals to sympathetic authorities and allied third parties. On college campuses in particular, the rise of structures and procedures to address such slights (aka microaggressions) has led to the institutionalization of 'safe spaces,' 'trigger warnings,' and a proliferation of counseling centers, administrators, and support staff. The shift has also resulted in a series of destructive, unintended consequences, including moral panics, false accusations, curtailing of free speech, assaults on academic freedom, 'competitive victimhood' (across the lines of race, class, gender, religion, and sexual orientation), and incidents of violent backlash. Required reading for those seeking to move beyond the seeming downward spiral of becoming a nation of victims. Summing Up: Essential. All readers."

Consider these interesting "unpublished endorsements":

"A book of revelations! Sociologists Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning provide both a comprehensive overview and surgically precise analysis of what many will find a new and possibly shocking style of modern morality - a 'culture of victimhood' - that ever more aggressively dominates discourse and silences the free exchange of ideas in American academic life. The book will reward any reader with a rare experience: a consistently creative and stunningly insightful theory supported by a rich array of captivating empirical illustrations. Anyone with even a casual interest in the conflict and tension that increasingly pervade and politicize the atmosphere of today's colleges and universities will surely feast on every chapter of this book." (Donald Black, University Professor Emeritus of Social Sciences, University of Virginia)

"Campbell and Manning are prophets of the academic world. They correctly diagnosed the first outbreaks of a new moral culture of victimhood in 2014, before most of us had even heard of 'microaggressions.' The rapid changes in campus culture since then have validated their analysis. In this important book, Campbell and Manning give everyone the sociological tools they need, in easy and accessible language, to understand and perhaps reverse the pull of victimhood culture, which is now spreading beyond universities into corporate America and the broader American public square." (Jonathan Haidt, <www.bit.ly/2NoUTGd> Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership, NYU-Stern School of Business <www.bit.ly/2Jp0xIc>)

"The Myth of the Moral Middle" by Tayari Jones, Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University -- "People ask how might we 'meet in the middle,' as though this represents a safe, neutral and civilized space. This American fetishization of the moral middle is a misguided and dangerous cultural impulse.

"The middle is a point equidistant from two poles. That's it. There is nothing inherently virtuous about being neither here nor there. Buried in this is a false equivalency of ideas, what you might call the 'good people on both sides' phenomenon. ... What is halfway between moral and immoral? ...

"The search for the middle is rooted in conflict avoidance and denial. For many Americans it is painful to understand that there are citizens of our community who are deeply racist, sexist, homophobic and xenophobic. [Perhaps RSHX, the acronym for that oft-spewed epithet with its own mythic quality, will one day match the utility of LGBT. - RP] Certainly, they reason, this current moment is somehow a complicated misunderstanding. Perhaps there is some way to look at this - a view from the middle - that would allow us to communicate and realize that our national identity is the tie that will bind us comfortably, and with a bow. The headlines that lament a 'divided' America suggest that the fact that we can't all get along is more significant than the issues over which we are sparring. ...

"For the people directly affected, the culture war is a real war too. They know there is no safety in the in-between. ...

"As Americans, we are at a crossroads. We have to decide what is central to our identity: Is the importance of our performance of national unity more significant than our core values?"

Jones concludes: "Compromise is not valuable in its own right, and justice seldom dwells in the middle."

Ironically, the thing Jones speaks most highly of in this piece is how "My father was then, as he is now, a man of great civility...." Time, Nov 5 '18, pp56-7.

As for any hope offered from this we/they camp toward the resolution of our country's growing conflict, tellingly, the online version of this item is titled "There's Nothing Virtuous about Finding Common Ground." <www.ti.me/2RQ1k87> Which leads us, in turn, to ask "Where are we headed?" If the "good people on both sides" idea Jones torpedoed above is also a myth, read it loud and clear: Her camp represents good, if you disagree, you are not good. As Jones said: "The culture war is a real war" - at least, it seems to be moving that way. No ground, it appears, will be willingly given by the Left.

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - The Rise of Victimhood Culture: Microaggressions, Safe Spaces, and the New Culture Wars, by Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, paperback, 278 pages) <www.amzn.to/2DyaLFU>

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