A Buddhist look at victimhood

The first noble truth of Buddhism is suffering or as some translate, unsatisfactoriness.  There are other renderings in English we could come up with for the Sanskrit word duhkha such as uneasy, uncomfortable, unpleasant, difficult or unhappy; even disharmony. 

Also, it is important to add that the first noble truth are also the five aggregates or skandhas that make up our life, namely, corporeality, feeling, perception, volitional formations and consciousness which are duhkha. When these aggregates are afflicted or get out of kilter, owing to our degree of attachment to the aggregates, subjectively, we experience pain or unhappiness finding life difficult almost unbearable.

Looking at what makes a person a victim from a Buddhist perspective; who is in a noticeable degree of duhkha, is not an easy subject to smooth out and make it easy to understand or find clear and commonsense solutions. 

The complexity of what a victim is has been greatly expanded over the years to include all types of civil and criminal wrongs from birth to death that can give a person the mark of being a victim.  In deed, there has been a proliferation of victimhood status in recent years — all experiencing various degrees of duhkha.

Assessing the potential boundaries of what makes someone a victim and another person not a victim turns out to be a proverbial can of worms.  If someone decides to use the ATM in New Orleans at 2 a.m. in the morning and ends up beaten and robbed, shouldn’t this person have known better than to venture into a crime area at this time?  To what extent is the victim’s behavior responsible to some degree for the duhkha?  And what about general social harm against the citizens of a community when corrupt officials won’t enforce the laws on the books to insure public safety by getting rid of the so-called junkies who rob and attack people, in the example of San Francisco?  Aren’t they victims rather than the junkies?  And what about coming to a determination that no victimization had occurred, in the example of flipping someone off in traffic or calling someone at a political rally a fascist or a traitor?  But isn’t stalking someone such as a political leader or an actor or an actress an example of victimization?

All of us are potential victims and are more so when we put ourselves into situations in which victimization can likely occur.  It is also true that we can unconsciously victimize ourselves; walking into situations where we will become a victim.  And what about turning children into almost lifelong victims as a result of abusive parenting?

With cultural degeneration in which our cities are becoming increasingly unsafe there is a noticeable rise in victimhood and duhkha, not to mention victimizers who are predatory looking for victims.

The answer to victimization is not one single sure-fire answer but requires that we first accept the first noble truth of our human existence which is duhkha just as the truth of our birth is always death.  We even have to face the sad fact that we often turn ourselves into victims by our uncritical and uninformed views about our personal health, our general lifestyle, and our politics or the lack thereof.  We have a responsibility not to become victims which sounds obvious but we also have a responsibility not to exploit victimization turning it into a badge of status or a political opportunity.

At some point in our lives we will become victims  and maybe even a victimizer.  It all comes under the heading of the first noble truth but also the second which is our incessant clinging to the five aggregates or skandhas which make up our human life, namely, corporeality, feeling, perception, volitional formations and consciousness which are duhkha.  It is only Buddhism that can teach us to see beyond the five aggregates and escape becoming future victims.

Comments

[aryeh]

"our cities are becoming increasingly unsafe..."

Not according to this report;

"Violent crime and homicide rates have generally trended downward since the early 1990s. Even though the violent crime and homicide rates increased from 2014 to 2015 and again from 2015 to 2016, both rates remained at levels not seen since the mid-1960s."

source:https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R45236.pdf