Universities and colleges have long been indoctrinating that whiteness is an evil that must be shamed into the corner and apologized for.  At first, a subtle approach was used to propagate this message.  In that way, this radical concept was able to fly under the radar of the general public and thereby invoke little resistance.  But as time went on, its promoters in the seats of higher learning became bolder and bolder.  What was once implied or presented only in between the lines was made explicit.  Before you knew it, "White Is Evil" was formalized into a doctrine of politically correct belief that was not to be questioned on campus. 

Following the lead of the universities, many corporations and government agencies fell in line.  They started putting their employees through training programs to insure that even the most unrepentant of whites learned of their 1) privilege and 2) culpability in the sins of Western civilization.  This brainwashing has now even seeped down to the lowest levels of the K–12 public school system.

Many people now feel ashamed of being Caucasian and go through life carrying the burden of white guilt on their shoulders.  The late Susan Sontag claimed that the white race is "the cancer of human history."  That's an insane thought, but though their positions in the universities and media, leftists have been propagating this very idea.  Unfortunately, it has taken root with far too many.  This is especially true of the young, who have been subjected to more intense brainwashing than older generations.  But self-hatred goes against human nature, so why are many susceptible to believing such a counter-intuitive idea?  It's because of two other human traits. 

It begins with envy.  In his book Envy: A Theory of Social Behavior, sociologist Helmut Schoeck writes: "Envy is a drive which lies at the core of man's life as a social being."  He also repeats the obvious that envy is a destructive force.  This is why the Church lists it as one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Envy can occur when there is a gap between individuals or between one group and another. The gap can be in various things — beauty, personality, income, achievement, etc.  The greater the gap, the greater the potential for envy.  Take Europe as one example.  Europeans believe they are the pinnacle of civilization and should be recognized as such.  Yet they stand in the shadow of America's power, wealth, and dominance of the popular culture.  As a result, Western Europe deeply envies America, which explains much of its knee-jerk animus toward this country. 

But it's the flip-side of the envy coin that explains why so many people are susceptible to the white guilt propaganda.  It is the fear of being envied by others.  This has been well articulated by Jack Wheeler, who writes at ToThePointNews.  He notes that the fear of envy is "very deep-seated in the human psyche." 

Fear is a powerful motivator.  Wheeler says an inordinate fear of being envied is what drives liberals and those infected by the liberal mentality to go into an envy appeasement mode.  And the more pampered and well off they are, the more they grovel.  They apologize for their sex if they are males, for their race if they're white, for their religion if they're Christian, for their country if they're Americans, and even for Western civilization.  Fear of being envied by others is the fertile soil from which the weeds of white guilt take root and grow. 

One final point worth mentioning.  Schoeck makes an insightful comparison between jealousy and envy.  This is pertinent to what is going on in the country today.  He says the jealous man wants to take the achievements or possessions of another.  The envious man, however, is different. 

...the envier has little interest in the transfer of anything of value from the other's possession to his own.  He would like to see the other person robbed, dispossessed, stripped, humiliated, or hurt, but he practically never conjures up a detailed mental picture of how a transfer of the other's possession to himself might occur.

Accordingly, the rioters and anarchists are tormented by two inner demons.  One is the envy of normal, middle-class society.  This explains much of the vandalism of historic monuments and statutes and the disorders in many cities.  Antifa is not trying to possess anything, although some opportunists do take advantage of the chaos to steal.  Rather, they are acting out a nihilistic urge to destroy for the sake of destroying.  Their attitude is basically "if I can't have a peaceful middle class life-style, it, you can't have it, either." 

The other demon driving them is white guilt based on the fear of being envied by the underclass.  By lashing out at the system that shelters; nourishes; and yes, even babies them, individuals in Antifa are trying to appease the envy of those less fortunate born than they.  They use the police shooting of blacks as a pretext for this posturing.  The message they're trying to convey is, "See?  See?  I hate 'the man' as much as you do.  Please don't envy me."

Image credit: Pixabay public domain.