VICTIMS

There have been several recent national columnists treading carefully around the notion that the current American culture is melting into a society of whiners and victims.  A nation filled with whiners with little sense of responsibility or moral center is a festering boil. Commentators remark that  being seen as a victim can be useful or even profitable.  A person could claim the "moral high ground" by claiming the world, institutions, community or government is being unfair to him. Some people want to help you like lawyers, community activists and politicians who brag that they force others to help you.

It seems strange that a country and continent founded upon the independence of people leaving Europe to take a huge life or death risk coming to  America are the exact opposite of the people who today play the victim card. Prior to government programs to help people, people had to make it on their own, use their grit, determination, skills to  overcome obstacles which led to prosperity and happy lives.

The LOST characters played their own "victim" cards but in a more sublime way.

Sayid began his island stay as pulling away from the main group. He blamed his upbringing and his years as a soldier to become anti-social. He knew others around him had bias against him because of his skin color, nationality and skills. He never allowed himself not to be controlled by authoritative figures. He kept believing his was a victim in his tragic relationship with his true love, Nadia.

Locke's tormented life branded him a victim at an early age. He had no parents. He was shuffled off from foster home to foster home. He was treated different because he had no family. He tried to rebel against how other people perceived him, but he really wasn't good at anything. He accepted his dead end lifestyle. He never grew up; he remained naive. So naive, that he was truly victimized by his own father who stole a kidney from him; and then later crippled him by pushing him out of a 8 story window.

Kate also played a victim role in order to manipulate people around her. She was the smiling tomboy as a child who was eager to get into trouble in order to get attention, especially from her mother. Her working mother did not put Kate into the Norman Rockwell family setting, so she felt hurt by her mother's need to work. When she blew up her (step)father, she claimed she did it to free her mother from abuse (a victim saving another victim), but her mother rejected that position and demanded Kate accept responsibility for her actions. But like most victims, Kate could never accept that - - - so she ran away.

Jack was a victim of his own success. As a boy, he wanted his father's acknowledgement and approval. He worked hard to become his father's equal. He became a miracle worker spinal surgeon, but still did not garner his father's respect. And when he found out that his drunken father killed a patient on the OR table, Jack was part of the cover-up. Then in a moment of conscious, he betrayed his father and told the truth (in essence becoming the victim in the family lie). With his relationship torn a part, Jack spiraled into the darkness of drug and alcohol addiction - - - a self imposed victimization.

Sawyer was also a victim as a child. His father killed his mother in a murder-suicide. That left Sawyer without a family. He was the innocent victim of a con-man's consequences. So, he vowed to avenge his family, but by doing so he turned his own situation to find victims of his own anger, greed, deceit and criminal behavior. He went from victim to victimizer.

Ben was also an anti-social personality whose core was developed by the victimization by his father. Ben's father blamed Ben daily for his mother's death during premature child birth. Ben was constantly mentally abused by the fact his father did not care for the young boy who killed the woman he had loved. As a result, Ben had no normal upbringing; he had difficulty relating to other people or authority. Like Sawyer, he turned his own plight into darkness - - - the person who enjoyed making victims of other people.

None of the characters in the series who had these victim cards ever really kept to terms with their inner demons that caused their victim status. Many used their internal victim belief as a crutch to explain the bad things that would happen to them. Perhaps that is why there was no overreaching moral tone to the series since it was focused upon so many self-absorbed victims that the good or evil environment was immaterial in how they perceived themselves on the island.