the New Pantagruel

Victimism

On Victimism

A reply to Gassalasca Jape, S.J.’s “On the Spread of Victimism.”

Notwithstanding the general lack of manners, there is thought and analysis going on today. But it’s easier and more fun to fight than listen and discuss. Slinging shit is real fun, and if you’ve got the money to do it on TV, radio, the Internet, it’s greater fun! We play politics like we play sports — we yell, insult, criticize, cheer, etc., from our living rooms, offices and classrooms.

Trying to suppress the fight by blaming both sides, or pointing out the mistakes and hypocrisies found on both sides, is Pecksniffian. It’s not as if we don’t know that we’re hypocritical when we accuse the other side of being pure evil. We know that, nobody needs to point it out to us. We like fighting, because fighting is a part of playing, a part of working, a part of living. Having to be told that we are hypocrites is a diversion; it’s like kids yelling and fighting on the playground during a ballgame, only to be interrupted by a teacher who’s reminding us to “play fair!” Oh, we will, you can count on it, after we kick the crap out of this guy or that guy.

It will never be otherwise. And for those who are just beyond or outside the fray, they might try finding a hobby, read more Albert Jay Nock, and seek holiness.

Bob Sale
San Diego

Fr. Jape replies…

Mr. Sale—

In my view, there is a place for intelligent satire and polemic which is not antithetical to analysis. I know for a fact that such stuff has cured many a soul. The young, brought up amid the dysfunctions you describe, are often ripe for “something more.” Indeed, this is the whole strategy of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, is it not? ISI sponsors a hideously Limbaugh-like agitprop machine for college students and subsequently offers them contact with much more refined conservatism modeled by great men, both dead and living, such as your Mr. Nock. And it is no mere intellectual conversion that is sought; indeed, many of my evangelical friends believe that ISI is a Catholic conspiracy to steal away their young. Perusing the ISI book catalog, I am hard pressed to deny the evidence.

My best & finest regards�

+G.J.