I read my recent response to my husband. I didn't manage to read as many as a dozen words before he interrupted. "Not THIS again." By the time I had read twenty-four words, he added, "When is it going to stop?" Twelve more words produced, "It doesn't stop. It just doesn't stop." My husband has, as I have, heard this all many times before.
My thoughts here are not meant to be an attack of any kind, or even a credible assessment. My only qualifications in psychiatry are as a patient. I am sensitive, though, to things that do not make sense. When the same nonsensical things are repeated by many people over many years, I start seeing patterns.
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One of the problems with Identity Politics is that groups who practice it tend to rely heavily on victimhood for coalition building. A negative consequence of that strategy is that over time victimhood starts to sink into the collective psyche and can make a people perceive themselves as powerless.
There may be some truth in this, but I suspect there is something more. I don't know what it is, so I am of little use on that subject.
I am most reminded (and you shall have to forgive me for the digression) of discussions I participated in many years ago about Gay schooling. At issue was the insufferable bullying Gay youths so often face in US schools. By 'insufferable' I really do mean that it is often, ultimately, fatal. The proposed solution: remove the at-risk kids to a safe place and give them their own school. Separatism is separatism, whether we are discussing a classroom or a nation, and I am a Separatist.
Apparently, this is unforgivable blasphemy in one or more flavors of superstition. Suggesting that Gays independently educate Gay young people produces shrieks of 'segregation' and 'discrimination.' It is neither. While one might (and people do) argue that Gay youths have every right to an education, that right is meaningless if they end up dead or homeless because of it. "We have to change society," the superstitious fanatics say. Meanwhile, boys and girls suffer and die. Gay schools would remove them from a demonstrably dangerous environment. It has been tried in a number of places. It works. It should be expanded.
The digression comes to an end here. Those twisted souls who would permit a thousand children to be tormented to death in the name of gradually perfecting an imperfect society then change their tune. "They will just be bullied there, too."
They become irrational. I know of not even one instance of bullying in an all-Gay or predominantly Gay educational environment. It seems extreme to say, but there really are no indications that bullying exists at all in these situations. Yet, opponents of separate schooling for Gay youths seem to invariably make the unsupported claim.
Where does this knee-jerk excuse for inaction come from? Here, too, some imaginary monster lurks under the bed.
Homophobic bullying comes from homophobes. Get rid of the homophobes, and you get rid of the bullying. Simple transitive principles suggest that removing the Gay kids and doing nothing at all about the homophobes has the same end result. Bullying is not some nebulous wraith that will hunt you down no matter where you go; it is the culpable behavior of specific individuals.
The same can be said for wars of aggression. Military attacks are undertaken by states that possess the motivation, means, and will to do so. It doesn't much matter how universally hated Gay people might or might not be in (for example) the Kingdom of Tonga. What Tonga might reasonably be able to do about that hatred does matter. If someone has designs on Minerva Reef, Tonga's diminutive military will come into play. They have one plane. They have three patrol boats. Under no circumstances should the Kingdom of Tonga (as an example) be conflated with a nuclear super-power. That country just isn't a super-power. They do have armed personnel, about 500 of them, but it would be insensitive and pointless to compare that to the White Party.
When one suspects that there are monsters under the bed, I would suggest first looking under the bed. It cannot ever be sufficient to just tape a sign with "Here Be Monsters" scrawled on it to a problem and leave it at that. It is bad enough to be beset by monsters, but there is nothing worse than succumbing to imaginary monsters. You defeat yourself. If you think there are monsters under the bed, look under the bed. If it turns out that there really are monsters, the simplest solution is to be elsewhere. There isn't a lot of room under most beds, though.
The topic here is "Justification for a Nation." I will offer you mine. It has two parts, and both are necessary.
1 You want one
2 You succeeded
Afterward, all manner of words will be written down about it, and most of them will be untrue.
I do think the 'monsters under the bed' issue is of some importance. In my youth, much was made (too much, in my opinion) of 'internalized homophobia.' I don't see any homophobia in the belief that we are so hated that some state would avail itself of any convenient opportunity to exterminate us. I see fear. Fear itself is not a problem. It's not like there aren't monsters in the world. There ARE monsters.
The key to fighting monsters is to be sterner than the monsters. The trap there is that, in being sterner than the monsters, you become monstrous yourself. If you steel yourself against imaginary monsters, you become a monster for no reason. If you refuse to confront the real ones, you destroy yourself for no reason. You become monster bait. If you volunteer yourself as monster bait to an imaginary monster... there is something going on there, something that shouldn't be going on.