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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

national

Victim blaming and the American dream

Ah, the American dream: the idea that anyone, no matter where they started, can achieve success through hard work, dedication and a little bit of luck.
 
Of course, even the best of ideals have a dark side.

Victim blaming, the modus operandi of criminals, sleazy lawyers and misogynist politicians everywhere, is at least as American as apple pie. 

Ingrained in the American dream is the idea that good things happen to those who work hard and keep their noses clean. Success is the result of virtue.

By the same logic, then, people with failures get what they deserve. We tend to believe bad things can happen only to bad people.

This is a part of the dream that desperately needs to change.

Look at some icons of success who embody the American dream: Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs. Not only have these people succeeded, but there is a sense that they deserve their success. Through the virtues of hard work, self-discipline and self-reliance, they succeeded.

What about Americans at the opposite end of the spectrum?  Welfare recipients are often considered short-sighted, irresponsible and probably on drugs. There is a sense that their poverty is their fault due to a lack of virtue.

This system allows us to delude ourselves with the belief that if we are good enough, we can escape failure. It also causes us to kick others when they are down.

Victims’ failure to not get mugged, assaulted or battered must point to a personal moral failing on their part. 

Bad things happened to these people, so we want to believe these people were bad themselves, because if bad things can happen to anyone, bad things could happen to us.

Though this line of thinking makes us feel better, it does nothing for the victim who actually needs help.

Blaming victims for the unpredictable and antisocial actions of others is not right, and it is not productive.

Victims are victims. They do not deserve our moral judgment. The perpetrators do.
Perhaps if we were more concerned about criminals, fewer people would become victims.

Telling women to wear turtlenecks or pedestrians to stick to the good part of town does not have any functional value. These “prevention techniques” do nothing to actually prevent crime, and they give us a false sense of security. 

Instead of chastising the victim, we need to focus on who committed the real wrong.  
Rewriting part of the American identity and ripping off this psychological blanket may be hard, but it is necessary to affect the right kind of change.

By thinking about how we can stop criminals from committing crime, perhaps there would be fewer victims to blame.

­— casefarr@indiana.edu

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