A Cultural Climate that Forgives Weakness and Punishes Strength

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Celebrating Victimhood

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We hear a great deal about weakness these days. Whether they are conversations regarding the ‘oppressed’ in society or the need for ‘safe spaces’ or even the extreme of ‘needing to change public perception’ on health and beauty, it seems like society is making a tremendous effort to prop up the weakest individuals of society. This all seems well-intentioned at first and a no-brainer move towards a more compassionate environment, but this newfound effort to cushion every potential victim from any potential harm is having some severe consequences on our collective psyche.

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First off, I’ll make it clear that I’m a complete evolutionist, and this applies just as much to social evolution as it does to biological development. Weak societies, just like weak individuals, need to made stronger, always. Societies must always strive to make its individuals capable, reliable, innovative, intelligent, and overall competitive in a global context. Ones that cannot, will perish. Compassion is needed to a certain extent to ensure a harmonious internal structure, but it should never be the ultimate goal of a given culture.

And just to touch upon the concept of compassion - it is the short-term painkiller of society. Compassion is only brief fix to larger systemic issues, and compassion without long-term development and painful work is, in my opinion, unethical. It’s like giving morphine to a cancer patient but withholding the option for chemotherapy. Society is just a scale higher than the physical body and concepts like ‘safe spaces’ and ‘intersectionality’ are merely band-aids to deep wounds that we all experience. A short-term relief should never be offered without an end in mind. This is the fundamental reason why I dislike public discourse that tries to artificially elevate the weak through compassion rather than motivating them to become stronger.

Let’s take one very common anxiety - being overweight. Most people will experience a point in time, whether it’s during hormonal high school or a freshman 15 phase or after marriage during a sedentary office job. Weight is a universal pain point across societies and through history, and even I myself have gone through ups and downs in correlation to my own size. Even now, I’m easily 10+ pounds over my comfortable weight due to post-marriage comfort eating and startup stress.

But if you were to approach an overweight person with only compassion, nothing really would change. At best, the ‘victim of society’ may feel a bit less self-conscious around friends and family. But a societal standard is constant and striking, and there isn’t any way to escape at least some degree of public scrutiny, either actual or internal. Again, compassion is the ephemeral balm on a systemic issue. What’s the best way to deal with anxiety being overweight? Is it transforming entire societal standards? Or shaming any and all potential ‘fat-shamers’? Or is it simply altering to a healthier lifestyle, taking control of one’s weight, and becoming more responsible in alignment with a standard? You can probably guess which one I’d lean towards.

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Because ultimately it’s a question of what kind of society we wish to nurture. Do we want one filled with weak-willed people that feel no affiliation with any kind of standard of personal success? Or do we want one where ideals, no matter how numerous and diverse, are constantly strived towards? Again, long-term visions trump short-term instincts. Compassion often seems like the right route, but like most impulses, that option leads to negative outcomes.

This is why we don’t let children eat ice cream before dinner. This is why we have mandatory physical education in grade school. This is why we have standardized testing and job interview systems. We implicitly create a society that pushes us to become better, more skilled, and adapt. Individuals in this world that refuse to do those things are weakest links in our society. They should be provided with enough of a bare cushion as not to sink into madness, but otherwise they pull down the rest of a culture that should constantly be working for betterment.

Thoughts?