Victimhood, Excuses and Hate
We all have been watching Russia for two-plus years blame everybody for their failures. Yes, it’s always the pesky Anglo-Saxons that, like Scooby-Doo and the gang, stop them. The glorious Russian empire, forgive me, the Russian World, will soon overcome these meddling children.
If the Russians fail, well, there is always that nuclear threat they continue to issue every day of the week and twice on Sunday. The story of Peter and the Wolf comes to mind. And yes, the Wolf may still show up.
However, this is one way Russia has always explained defeats. They have gone so far as to withdraw from wars they were already losing and blaming the previous ruler. See, for example, the Crimean War. Yes, after Tsar Nicholas I died, reportedly from a cold, his son withdrew and, of course, blamed his dad for it.
This is one of the reasons I have posited that the death of Vladimir Putin could end the war. Whoever succeeds him could withdraw the army and blame the whole enchilada on Putin. It would not be unprecedented, and it’s part of the pattern.
The country I grew up in did the same. It was always an external force that was guilty of all the issues. In the case of Mexico, it was the United States. Before the North American Free Trade Agreement that married our economy to Mexico’s at the hip, it was always the dastardly Americans.
There was dependence before, but it was not transparent.
This went on to the 1847 war and a few interventions since. Chasing Francisco Villa (yes, he raided the United States before you say it) or landing troops in Veracruz did not help American reputation. After Mexico nationalized the oil industry, giving rise to PEMEX, that blame game was replaced with we gave a black eye to the Americans. Still, blaming the Yankees for all the real or imagined ills was a favorite sport.
Some of this was justified. The dirty war of the 1960s and 70s was carried out with tacit approval, even help from the United States. Blaming the United States prevented the Institutional Revolutionary Party from dealing with the systemic corruption and looting of the state. Like Russia, this was a cop, but it works.
The dirty war during two sexenios, twelve years, was terrible. I would argue that it started in the 1960s when there were nearly twenty years of policy agreements regarding the left. And when I say left, it’s not the American left. The Soviets attempted to penetrate Mexico and might have a role in the guerrilla war in the Tierra Caliente of Guerrero in the 1960s and 70s. There is some evidence they did penetrate the communist party of Mexico. Their efforts to penetrate other areas of Mexican life failed spectacularly.
Yet, “Yankees go home,” and studies on cultural conquest were constant. Oh, and as to the latter, yes, the US has exported culture since the Second World War. So, there is a good chance we all watched the same Daniel Boone TV program, which, in my case, was just dubbed. In some ways, Mexico does the same with Telenovelas and a few other TV programs. They go to the rest of Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Blaming outsiders is not limited to these two. The Israeli-Palestinian crisis suffers from this as well. In my view, Palestinians are on par with Russia, while Israelis blame Americans, but nowhere close to the Mexico of my youth.
I will make a judgment of degree. Palestinians are worse about this, especially outside the Middle East. As I have repeated this, Gazans, in particular, blame Hamas and Iran. This is but today's example, but you will not hear this in American Universities or from a few members of Congress:
Brief statement №1
Free Officers — GazaWe extend our greetings and appreciation to the Palestinian people in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and abroad
The devastation, displacement, and destruction to which our people are exposed in the Gaza Strip must stop, and the Hamas movement must work immediately to end the farce that destroyed the dream of the Palestinian people immediately.
Hamas must immediately hand over the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority
Calling for citizens to go out to public squares in Gaza City, the central Gaza Strip, and southern Gaza City
Calling for demonstrations on Friday immediately after the noon prayer, corresponding to 04–19–2024
Gathering placeGaza City — Palestine Square
Deir Al-Balah — Deir Al-Balah entrance, next to the Bank of Palestine
Rafah — Al-Najma CircleFree Officers
04–16–2024
This is a big deal. These people are not primarily blaming Israel. There is some of that, but at this point, they want Iran to leave them alone. When I say Iran, I mean the government. That’s a whole different issue.
Why is this a big deal? Until now, Israel is the total of all the problems for Palestinians. If Israel did not exist, all would be glorious. Ask Berkeley students in any of the humanities departments, and they will repeat this paragraph in one form or another. And by that, I mean the accusation that Israel is the source of all of it, and Palestinians are the oppressed.
Palestinians in Gaza, still a decent and obvious question is how many, blame Iran. Now, they are victims of forces beyond them. However, this signals something else: taking ownership of their future. They want, they are indeed demanding that Hamas step down. Israel is missing some of the obvious openings here. They could find partners for local governance.
This brings me to the Israeli blame game. For a lot of complex reasons, some Israelis and a lot more Americans are blaming President Joe Biden for this mess. Incidentally, this is on both sides of the crisis. This also removes self-determination from Israel and, strangely, makes her a victim of American machinations. See what I wrote about Mexico. It’s very unhealthy.
However, inside Israel, this is less pervasive. A lot of the discussion now revolves around the role of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his dancing with the devil. Of all three societies, they are the healthiest on this one.
In my opinion, blaming others for your problems is the worst you can do. It takes agency away from a society that does this. In many ways, it makes people look like infants. It steals agency.
It’s not accidental that the two societies that are worse about it are the most closed societies. Both Russian and Palestinian societies are filled with patronage, almost tribal social contract. They are also the most unlike us in the liberal West. They are, in a way, exotic and strange. This is not to look down on them; differences are the spice of life. But this makes them harder to understand and to fetishize at the same time.
However, this is the first time that Palestinians are blaming others, not just Israel. This matters. We are starting to see Russians blame their government for the collection of disasters befalling them, whether these are bursting pipes in the winter or failing dams in the spring.
We may be seeing a change in the blame dynamic. While some of this blame for Uncle Sam still exists in Mexico, it’s not nearly where it was when I was growing up. Does this mean we have an opening of sorts? I think we do.
The question is whether anybody who could benefit from this will exploit it. The West vis Russia may have trouble because open communication is mainly gone. Israel, for its internal political reasons, should, and honestly, it is adding to the tragedy because they could find partners on the ground for a day after the government. Yet they are not even trying for internal cabinet-level dynamics.
Which brings me to one last detail. While Americans on both sides blame Biden, Zionism, and Palestinians, this is frustrating, especially when people are flying Hezbollah flags in New York City and chanting death to America, no, true story from yesterday. The town where Al Qaida blew up the World Trade Center now had her native, or immigrant, sons and daughters screaming death to America.
In the meantime, Israelis are protesting. Some are openly blaming the Prime Minister. Others are defending him, and there are multiple shades in between.
Security, and let’s be honest, dancing with the devil did not deliver security to Israel, is the true center of Israeli politics. When the election comes, it will be interesting. I won’t predict who will win; however, I expect politics to moderate themselves because the far right failed to deliver or restore that security.
As to American politics, we are rarely in a place where we can claim to be victims. The rising wave of antisemitism is precisely that. Be careful not to embrace it because it gives you an out of taking responsibility for life. In a way, it’s a powerful drug. I know because we even had that at the dinner table in Mexico. Giving agency to others, whether in your personal life or national life, will paralyze you.