Two Questions

Victimhood and Responsibility

Bar River Rink

The above photograph was taken a few years ago. Right now there are no outside rinks in the area because there is no snow here. We had a lot in the first part of December but it all disappeared.

Yesterday and the day before I skated on a small lake near here, it had about 4 inches of ice. A man, who I knew, when skating on a bigger lake, drowned when he went through the ice two days ago.

These situations do not make me put out warnings of global warming or skating on thin ice.

I came across this short piece of writing I did last year sometime before I went through The Sovereign’s Way knowledge share. I had quite obviously been concerned with personal responsibility before the course. I think I was quite ready for the course. So here is the short essay.

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Victimhood and Responsibility 

Two questions, one about victimhood and the other about personal responsibility.

I propose that it is never beneficial for a person to feel or think that he is a victim. Whatever the circumstance or however much one can see that someone else is trying to oppress him, the best recourse will always be to retain his agency, to face the fact of his life without descending into victimhood. I think this would place him then in a better position to do something for himself if possible, if not possible then he can retain an acceptance and possible more peace as a result. Of course there is a infinite relative amount of oppression one can face and it would be relatively more difficult to retain your own agency in the face of excruciating oppression.

I think that we all have felt some oppression from circumstance, from parents, or from friends, enemies, colleagues, the government, etc. Is there a point where it is beneficial to give up being responsible and call ourselves a victim and essentially be under the power of another? Are we ever in a position to beneficially pass responsibility of our life to another?

This becomes more difficult in looking at children, or the mentally ill, or a parent who cannot make decisions on their own anymore. But these are legal and cultural responsibilities, not metaphysical ones. Legally a parent has responsibility of a child’s actions. This is being undermined in Canada as a parent doesn’t have a choice if an underage child declares they are the wrong sex but overall I think it is a correct statement. However I would like to ask this question in a more metaphysical, not legal, regard. 

If a parent is responsible for a child’s actions at what point does that responsibility change over to the child? There is no magical point when a child becomes an adult. It seems to be the same as the abortion issue whereby at what point do you declare that the fetus is a sentient being? Does a child always have responsibility for themselves? Ignorance cannot intrude here as many adults are ignorant of the affect of their actions.

tim