How to be an Anti-Victim: The Will to Interception
“Being an anti-victim is the third choice.” — Sandi Juneby
The traditional duality of victim versus nonvictim is an illusion. We are not limited to binary opposition. To believe in a victim versus nonvictim dichotomy is a form of self-discrimination. There is a third choice, the anti-victim.
A victim is one that is powerless, lacks agency, and is subjected to harm and suffering. On the other hand, the nonvictim is a survivor who takes responsibility, accepts their condition, and works to overcome challenges and adversity. The contrasting attributes between these ideas — harm versus survival — suffering versus responsibility — lack of agency versus overcoming, is the classic way people perceive victimization and non-victimization. The problem with this worldview is all these roads are reactionary. They all involve struggle. Reactionary positions are a gateway to oppression, and constant toil is an act of perpetual victimhood.
What is an anti-victim? Anti-victimization can be summed up with one word at its core: interception.
Way of Interception
“Go straight to the heart of danger, for there you will find safety.”
— Chinese Proverb
Bruce Lee is an iconic figure. His exploits as a martial artist on film and in life are legendary. Weighing in at 140 pounds soaking wet, he could generate enough speed and power to annihilate men almost double his size. Like Jesus was to God, Bruce Lee was the human embodiment of the anti-victim. What made this man so mighty? Due to his slight build, he was physically outmatched in almost every dimension. So, what then gave Bruce the presence of life he commanded? He embraced the idea of interception and constructed the mental, emotional, and physical attributes to act out the belief. So compelling was his faith, he named his martial art Jeet Kune Do, which means “Way of Interception.”
As Bruce recognized, adopting a way of interception as a life philosophy was one of the most powerful tools a person can be armed with. Like the Harpe sword that killed Medusa, interception provides an indispensable weapon against the gorgon of victimization. Nietzsche wrote about the will to power, Schopenhauer the will to life, and Frankl the will to meaning. Today it’s the will to interception — through this will, you can achieve life, power, and meaning.
As with any of the “wills,” some personal sacrifice is necessary. For to pick a direction in life means forfeiting all other directions; as we are bound by time and space, we can only walk one way at a time. Pick a path and go. Albeit we must choose our path wisely, as selecting the wrong route can lead to one’s demise. The beauty of interception is it promotes proactive small-stakes risks now, versus reactive large-stakes risks later. If a wrong choice is made, the philosophy allows one to course correct and recover without complete devastation as in the reactive models.
The idea of interception does not start and end with Bruce Lee. Most significant figures have different adaptations of the same notion. From Ben Franklin, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” To the great philosopher Confucius, “When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” Or the prolific artist Pablo Picasso, “Action is the foundational key to all success.” While coming from different time eras, cultures, and perspectives, all these individuals were able to tap into a similar thought stream.
In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey outlines the habitual patterns that make people great. What is the first habit? Be proactive. The reason for this is without proactivity, none of the other habits can be realized. Being proactive is the foundational component for all others. Interception is proactivity on steroids. It is the Super Soldier Serum that turns Steve Rogers into Captain America.
Interception is a multi-dimensional concept. However, today’s key theme is to impress the importance of moving away from reactive positions and heading toward proactive ones. Run to trouble.
Definitions
“The opposite of racist isn’t ‘not racist.’ It is ‘anti-racist.’”
— Ibram Kendi
In the book How to Be an Anti-Racist by Dr. Ibram Kendi, one of the defining features of this book was how Dr. Kendi took time to define the terms clearly.
Therefore, taking Dr. Kendi’s lead, here are the summarized terms of anti-victimization:
Victim: a powerless individual who lacks agency and is subjected to harm and suffering.
Nonvictim: an individual who takes responsibility, accepts their condition, and works to overcome challenges and adversity.
Anti-Victim: an individual who embraces interception. One who proactively seeks self-discomfort, constructive risk, and willful sacrifice, and through this process, helps themselves, others, and ideas to thrive.
Each definition is a road to existence, and the route is yours to choose.
A thought-provoking observation about Dr. Kendi manifests here: throughout his life, he was a victim of systemic racism, illness, and oppression. Via acts of heroism, sacrifice, risk, and suffering, his writing has transformed him into a hero among intellectuals — an anti-victim. Interestingly, this presents a strange paradox. How can he be a victim and an anti-victim all at once? The answer lies in words versus actions. In words, Dr. Kendi is self-portrayed as a victim. His actions, however, tell a different tale — one of individual choices: willful self-sacrifice, risk-taking, purposeful discomfort, and seeking to intercept a higher plane of purpose — an anti-victim.
Like Dr. Kendi’s road to success, it starts with an individual choice. As per Viktor Frankl, author, clinical psychologist, and survivor of Auschwitz, true human freedom is the choice that lies between the stimulus and the response. These words you are reading here today are the stimulus. The question is, what is your response?
Despite the individualistic nature of anti-victimization, this is not to say there is no group impact. If enough individuals within a group transform the outcome of their lives, this, in turn, can change the world.
Fail your Way to the Top
“Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.”
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
In his book Anti-fragile, Nassim Nicholas Talab challenges the reader to identify the opposite of fragile using the analogy of a UPS package. The package stamped with the word “fragile” would indicate the box is breakable — do not mishandle — handle with care. On the contrary, parcels without the label of “fragile” would naturally be assumed to be tough and robust and thus do not have to be treated with kid gloves. However, is being rugged and tough the true opposite of fragile? The true opposite of fragile is the box stamped “please mishandle.” A package such as this requires maltreatment to thrive. This idea is the heart of anti-fragility. This same analogy that Nassim Nichole Talab applies to fragile and anti-fragile applies to victimization.
For example, instead of being powerless, such as the victim, or being a survivor, such as a nonvictim, what about the person who proactively seeks willful exposure and self-discomfort, and channels it in such a way that they thrive? Not only for themselves but for others? This personification is anti-victim. Like the anti-fragile, the anti-victim requires a certain amount of self-imposed stress for its very existence.
The anti-victim recognizes that learning and failure are the same coin. You must fail to learn. You must learn to fail.
The Power of Language
“Never say anything about yourself you do not want to come true.”
— Brian Tracy
Language is the gateway to the mind; the words you use help shape your thoughts, interpretations of the world, and even the outcomes of your life. Take a moment and deconstruct the language of the three definitions. Notice the distinct differences.
The victim definition uses words like “powerless,” “lacking,” “harm,” “suffering,” and “death.” The nonvictim uses words like” responsibility,” “work,” “acceptance,” and “challenges.” The anti-Victim uses “seeking,” “proactive,” “discomfort,” “risk,” “sacrifice,” “thrive,” and “others.” What words do you use daily, in self-dialogue, and your interactions?
If one starts adapting the language of one of the pathways, the pathway will begin to materialize in their life. This idea is beyond just thinking or reading. You must speak it out loud. To yourself, to others, or even in spiritual prayer. It must be expressed and heard as a kinetic force against the world.
Notice that no matter which path one chooses, they all are rife with difficulties. This is the rub. ALL roads are challenging. Life is hard. Existence is suffering. Hunger, pain, and tiredness are all a part of living. While we cannot eliminate these qualities, we can certainly reduce, mitigate, and sometimes lessen them for extended durations of lifespan. To do nothing is as harsh as to do something; it just depends on how and when the pain is manifested. In the end, death always comes.
Anti-victims are the only ones with the word “other” associated. If one is a victim, they are powerless. One needs to charge up their e-bike to ride. Having no power in the battery means no e-bike ride for you, let alone others. Nonvictims, while they are survivors, the burden of responsibilities and overcoming they endure consume most of their life power for themselves. They cannot get ahead. They are constantly reacting and dealing with what is being thrown at them. This is not to say self-sufficiency is terrible — it is a prerequisite — it just is not the highest level of obtainment. One needs a profit of life power, some excess, to give others something. Thus, you will find some of the most selfish people, either victims or nonvictims. Albeit the victim and nonvictim are selfish in different ways, yet selfish, nevertheless. Saying this may seem harsh, but it is radically honest and meant with empathy, as living in a world of powerlessness or survival, fight or flight, is a shackle I would like to help people break.
Ever heard the term “work smart, not hard?” This term is an example of anti-victim language. Some may mistake this language to mean simply work less, such as Gabrielle Judge’s Lazy Girl Jobs, or others that share this style of thought. Not so. In the context of anti-victimization, work smart means to intercept and willfully endure manageable pain now to reduce massive and excruciating pain later.
Does this mean you throw yourself into arbitrary, dangerous situations like skydiving, cliff jumping, or parachuting? No. Low-skilled acts of adrenaline-seeking do not make you an anti-victim. They make you a dopamine addict and are designed for entertainment. Our dear ancient friend Aristotle sorted out the proper balance thousands of years ago. Courageousness is the mean between recklessness and cowardice. Courageous could be saving hikers in a helicopter, such as action star hero Harrison Ford did in 2000[1]. This is a human act of courageousness. However, courageousness does not always have to be some monumental event involving helicopters and action heroes. Not always. It is the day-to-day culmination of tiny acts built over time. Chris Voss, the world-famous hostage negotiator, uses the term “small-stakes practice for high-stakes gain.” Small-stakes practice could be as simple as how you decide to deal with someone cutting in front of you at the grocery store. Or how you ask for your order with the coffee barista. Or even how you introduce yourself and others at social gatherings.
Anti-victimization is like the oxygen in the air of your life experience. While one needs to exert to inhale deeply, the aftereffects of such a breath are magnificent and well worth the effort.
The Antivenom: Helping Others
An anti-victimization approach to life is not genetic. It is not luck. It is not divine or God-gifted. You are not born with it. It is learned.
In martial arts, there is a six-stage process to become good at any given technique. Stage 1, we first must learn the technique. Next, in stage 2, we must practice what we learned. Stage 3 is functionalizing and adapting the technique to real-world situations and circumstances. Given enough time and energy, we move into stage 4, mastery of the technique. In stage 5, we maintain what we have mastered. In stage 6, the final stage, we teach the technique to others. Learn-practice-functionalize-master-maintain-teach. This six-stage process can be applied to learning the techniques of anti-victimization.
The six-stage learning process starts and ends with teaching as the paramount step. One could say that the sixth step, teaching, is the most vital, for without the teaching element, there would be no knowledge for others to learn.
To contrast against a different domain, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an organization founded in 1935 that focuses on recovery from alcoholism through its spiritually inclined twelve-step program. The plan is very mature and comprehensive and has yielded much success and transformed people’s lives for the better. Those who complete the twelve-step program have a lower chance of relapse than those who do not. What is the twelfth step? To carry the message. To teach others. To “keep what we have by giving it away.” As with martial arts, the AA program starts and ends with teaching.
Regardless of domain, martial arts, alcohol rehabilitation, and teaching, the art of giving knowledge to others is part of being an anti-victim.
There seems to be solid biological evidence for the benefits of this process. For example, in numerous recent studies, we know there seems to be a bidirectional correlation between anti-social behavior and victimization[2]. Furthermore, the act of giving, and human kindness, stimulates the chemical oxytocin in the body[3]. Oxytocin has been shown in numerous studies to reduce anti-social behavior[4]. Thus, helping others, selfless teaching, and giving, create oxytocin, reduce anti-social behaviors, and stimulate pro-social ones. Pro-social behavior encourages your sense of agency in the world and fuels the battery of the e-bike of life — the exact opposite of being a victim.
Just as antivenom is to a pit viper bite, helping others is the antivenom to victimization.
Morality and the Anti-Victim
The trigon of creation illustrates three forms: the parent, the child, and the idea. Three forces flow between the three forms. The forces are birth, influence, and transformation. When the trigon maintains its shape, it provides an armor-piercing bullet against the dark forces of victimization. Focus on others and ideas through personal uncertainty and hardship, and you will embody the trigon, the spear that impales victimization.
Anti-victimization has a moral checkpoint embodied in its nature. Recall the latter part of the definition. That is to “help themselves, others, and ideas to thrive.” Note it is not “themselves, others, or ideas to thrive.” Substituting the “or” for the “and” creates subtle, incorrect, and counterproductive differences. The “and” insists on the balance between the three forms. There needs to be harmony between the parent, child, and idea to maintain the strength of the triangle. In other words, people and ideas need to thrive together instead of in lieu of each other.
To over-prioritize one form over the other weakens the structure. For example, in Stalinist Russia, the priority of the communist ideology was placed over the well-being of parents and children to such an extreme degree that it led to the death and suffering of millions of people. In this case, prioritizing ideas over people led to some destructive consequences indeed.
Remember the inherent definition of anti-victimization; the end state must include human flourishing. It is all up to you.
References
[1] Harrison Ford: The extraordinary accounts of how the actor has rescued hikers in his helicopter | The Independent
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4207065/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29294607/
https://psychcentral.com/disorders/narcissistic-personality-disorder/narcissist-plays-the-victim
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.02059/full
[3] https://www.cedars-sinai.org/blog/science-of-kindness.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/science/24angier.html
https://www.brownandtoland.com/blog/how-being-kind-helps-you-too/
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5573563/
https://cen.acs.org/articles/93/i16/Oxytocin-Promotes-Social-Behaviors-Tuning.html
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/43534798_Oxytocin_and_Human_Social_Behavior
About the Author
Scott Gehring is a modern-day enlightenment warrior who delights in adventure, free-spiritedness, creativity, tinkering, travel, and an insatiable love for constructive conflict. An acclaimed expert in multiple art styles, Scott, for over 35 years, has passionately pursued understanding, performance, health, discipline, truth, morality, and the purity of combat.
More on Scott:
