- OK, so what the heck is “Learned Helplessness”? “Learned helplessness” occurs when an individual continuously faces a negative, uncontrollable situation and stops trying to change their circumstances, even when they can do so. It is a defeatist mindset.
A good example of this is when a child is being bullied in school, and they give up trying to change the situation. They feel helpless to do anything about it. So they just learn to accept it. They already know that it will happen again and again. This can apply to almost anyone. It can happen to a woman who is married to an abusive husband. It can happen to a smoker who has tried to quit over and over and over. But, just does not seem to be able to break the habit. This also happens when you allow a state like California tell you where you can live or travel to and you just accept it because you think you cannot do anything about it.
This also happens to anyone of color who hears that they are a victim so many times that they finally start to think that they really are a victim, and just finally gives up and stops trying to break out of the role of a victim. This is exactly what is happening when someone of color is subjected to the Critical Race Theory. It is easier to just accept it rather than try to help themselves by continuing to fight it. Even if they get to a point where they could get away from it. It is a conditioning of the mind.
The number one way of helping themselves is to develop “True” self-confidence. We develop this type of confidence over an extended period. It takes many accomplishments that have been achieved over a long time. It takes a continous effort on their part to achieve a certain level of expertise. Compliments will only build “False” self-confidence. You do not want your child to develop false self-confidence. The only thing this will get your son is a busted nose.
learned helplessness can begin in childhood.
When caregivers do not respond appropriately to a 
child’s need for help, the child may learn that they cannot change their situation. If this occurs regularly, the state of “learned helplessness” may persist into adulthood. This can create many difficult situations for them. It also affects their self-efficacy and their self-esteem. It can create a situation where they will finally get to a point where they have little or no desire to improve themselves or their lives.
Children with a history of prolonged abuse and neglect, for example, can develop learned helplessness and feelings of powerlessness.
Some of “Learned helplessness” in children includes:
- low self-esteem,
- low motivation,
- low expectations of success
- less persistence
- not asking for help
- ascribing a lack of success to a lack of ability
- ascribing success to factors beyond their control, such as luck
In childhood, “learned helplessness” often presents at school. If a child studies hard to do well in their schoolwork but, ultimately does poorly, they may feel helpless and hopeless. At this point, they will stop even trying to improve their performance in school work. They will have developed the attitude of “why try? Nothing I do will make any difference.”
Links With Mental Health Conditions
“Learned helplessness” can make a child develop depression, PTSD, and other health problems. Research shows that it increases feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression in both humans and animals.
One study, for example, suggests that learned helplessness may increase the risk of PTSD and major depressive disorder in women who have lived with domestic violence for a long time.
The Conflicts of Learned Helplessness In Motivation
Written by: Kelly Shields
“Learned helplessness has detrimental effects on children. They develop a lack of self-confidence in challenging tasks, which results in deterioration of performances(Dweck, Davidson, Nelson, & Enna, 1978). These children also use poor solving strategies; their attention wanders and they feel they are struggling for nothing.
This might even put learned helpless children behind a grade or two in academic subjects and dampen their social skills. In the end, they get a message that they are worthless and hopeless (Berger, 1983). They feel incompetent and unable to master any new material or task. Learned helpless children “know” that they are failures and cannot think otherwise.
In Erikson’s view, he suggests that children with few successes will become inferior, which leads them to have low self-confidence (Berger, 1983). Most learned helpless students give up trying to gain respect through their academic performance so they turn to other means of recognition. They may become the class clown, bully or tease. When they begin adolescent years, they try to gain respect through antisocial behaviors (Berger, 1983).”
Being anti-social can lead to all kinds of trouble for them. Particularly later in life. They classify many prison inmates as anti-social.
Critical Race Theory
Critical Race Theory is a perfect example of how the left is using “Learned Helplessness” to create as many new victims as they can. Both black, white, and Brown. When all you ever hear is that you are oppressed. You are a victim. It does not take long for you to start believing that you are a victim. This can be tantamount to a lifetime of failure because you just do not expect to ever succeed.
When you are constantly taught that you are an oppressor or that you are oppressed, and that you are racist. CRT turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Nobody wins. When schools start teaching radicalism instead of how to read and write. Then all we get is a society of violent protesters who can barely read or write. Rick Perry, the former governor of Texas, once said: An uneducated populace is easier to cow, easier to control, and easier to enslave. But this is exactly what the CRT proponents are trying to do.
Corporate America
There is another issue that the CEOs of Walmart, AT&T, UPS, American Airlines, and many others who have adopted the “Woke” philosophy do not seem to have thought about. “Learned helplessness” can have a profound impact on mental health
and well-being. People who experience learned helplessness are also more likely to experience symptoms of depression, elevated stress levels (Anxiety), and be less motivated to take care of their physical health. It can even cause PTSD in some people, depending on the situation. Not everyone responds to experiences the same way.
They are also less likely to care about their job performance. These companies might think that their “Woke” principle is helping them to save money by paying their employees less for the same job. This is also a sure-fire guaranteed way to make sure the quality and quantity of the work they produce will become less. This will also be a way to add to the problem of the “have’s” and the have not’s”. This cannot be good for American society. If these companies are truly interested in social justice like they are claiming. This will be a very poor way of showing it.
Corporate America also must deal with “Learned helplessness” on its own. The “Woke Progressive” crowd has forced large corporations like AT&T, American Airlines, and Walmart into a submissive position to keep from having to face the consequences of being labeled as racist companies. The CEOs are well aware of how much damage the image of being tone deaf toward blacks can do to their brands. This may or may not be completely true. But I believe organizations like BLM and Antifa have gone way overboard in their efforts to correct the situation.
Parents
Learned helplessness can lead to both anxiety and/or depression. Your child may develop the expectation that future events will be as uncontrollable as past ones. Essentially, your child may feel that there is nothing he can do to change the outcome of an event, so he tells himself he might as well not even try.
A very good example of this has to do with the current push to have everyone vaccinated with the COVID vaccine. Both parents and children are being vaccinated with an experimental vaccine that has been documented to have caused the deaths of over 50,000 people. There are estimates by the Heritage Foundation that this number is closer to 400,000. The political system has scared and intimidated a large percentage, 80%, of the American populace into becoming vaxxed. Anyone who refuses to become vaccinated is shamed and sacred into complying.
This is a picture book example of “Learned Helplessness”. The pressure to accept the vaccine is so intense that most people just give up because they do not think that they can do anything about it. I am not anti-vaccine. I believe it should be a choice made between a person and their doctor. Not the government. I believe that the pressure to become vaccinated is not because of how good the vaccine is. It is because of the desire by the current political party in power to achieve unbridled power over American citizens. We subject the people who refuse to become vaxxed to all kinds of abuse, name-calling, intimidation, and threats. Not because of any sincere belief that it is not a good idea for them, of which I am one. This is nothing more than old fashion intimidation bullying.
“According to prominent physician Dr. Peter McCullough. Teenagers — especially boys — are more at risk from being hospitalized from the vaccine than they are from COVID, he said. The culprit is myocarditis, inflammation of the heart.”
He also stated, “there are major risks with the COVID shots, especially for old people. “We now know it’s the seniors, anyone over 62, who die with the vaccine… 50 percent of these deaths occur within 48 hours, 80 percent within a week,” he said.
The bottom line here is that “Learned Helplessness” can be deadly through sheer ignorance.
Are We the Only Country having these problems?
Even France refuses to fall victim to the “Progressive Wokeism” that we are tolerating. Again, this is a case of Learned Hopelessness because society does not currently see a way to fight back against this political wave. We do not see a way to fight back. So we just accept it.
“The radical left in France has taken note of activists in the United States who are using race and gender issues to gain power and influence and have decided to see if they can duplicate their success in France.”
“The French elites — unlike many elites here in the U.S. — Are not thrilled at the left’s efforts. They believe wokeism weakens the republic, contradicting the creed of “liberty, equality, and fraternity” for all.”
“We have to look at what’s weakening democracy, weakening the republic,” said Jean-Michel Blanquer, the French education minister in the Wall Street Journal. “Wokeism is clearly that.”
“Controversy erupted last month after Le Robert, a dictionary publisher, included an entry for “iel”–a gender-neutral pronoun that fuses “il” and “elle,” the French words for “he” and “she.” The pronoun is intended to counteract a default for the masculine gender in French and to accommodate those who don’t want to specify a gender. The decision came amid a fierce debate over whether they should permit such writing in official documents.”
“I see the first step, or the stigma, of woke-isme,” said Francois Jolivet, a lawmaker from Mr. Macron’s party. “When we look at what’s happening in the United States, we can’t think that new freedoms have come with the arrival of inclusive writing.”
“Other nations aren’t blind. They can see how the left and wokeism are tearing this country apart. And especially in a nation like France, which prides itself on its tolerant self-image, this battle over “gender-neutral” pronouns have ignited a conflict that is both ludicrous and unnecessary.”
America is Helpless
Right now we are dealing with the Omicron variation. So far there has not been one single documented case of death from it. Yes, COVID-19 and the Delta Variant have hundreds of thousands of deaths associated with both versions. But not a single one from Omicron. The current panic about getting tested and boosted is a perfect example of being “Learned Helplessness”. People are so conditioned to having to get a shot or deciding not to at all that they do not seem to understand that the Omicron requires virtually no overt action on their part whatsoever. They estimated that more than 40% of people with the Omicron variant have such light symptoms that they won’t even realize they are ill to begin with.
So, then why are so many people lining up just to get tested for something with symptoms so light they are hardly even noticed? The medical and political establishments have been so effective at conditioning people to think they “Have TO” get another shot when it is not even necessary. What they have learned has made them virtually helpless to resist it. Remember, there have been no deaths attributed to the Omicron Variant anywhere on this planet.
Help with Learned Helplessness
Just in case you feel like you are a victim of “Learned Helplessness”. All hope is not lost There are “3 methods to overcome learned helplessness and boost optimism”.
This is the title of an article that will help you to learn how to break free from the grip of “Learned Helplessness.” These three methods will help you to once again learn how to make your own decisions and not act like a robot.