Victimhood
Fashionable debasement used to obtain unearned spoils.
A mentality we adopt to provide ourselves with a warrant to victimize others.
A self-defeating status that is currently glamourized. As a result, we are actively encouraged to discover ways to reduce ourselves to victims and integrate any perceived victimhood into our identities. Once this occurs, it is unlikely we are willing to give it up because it defines us; without it, who would we be?
While not technically considered pathological (for now), a tendency towards viewing ourselves as victims is a recognized dimension of human personality. The victimhood mindset is currently measured by four criteria:
Constantly seeking recognition for one’s victimhood
A sense of moral elitism
Lack of empathy for the pain and suffering of others
Frequently ruminating about past victimization.(1)
Sound like someone you know? If we look for something, we will find it everywhere.
In cases where real victimization occurs, there is an expectation that residual trauma requires treatment. What complicates things is when people have imagined that they are victims – when something benign can be interpreted as harm – as is seen in the reporting of microaggressions, one of the purest examples of pseudo-intellectual garbage. More complicated still, due to how some victims are showered with attention and compassion, or are even given political clout, some may construct elaborate lies in order to benefit from an environment of callousness that seeks to destroy perpetrators - real or imagined.
The popularity of declaring yourself a victim is an indication that you live in a society that is wealthy, stable and predominantly just. If it were not wealthy, stable and just, then sharing your vulnerability and weakness publicly would be a death knell, as the most vulnerable and the weakest are primary targets for the violent and the vicious. Untreated trauma is generally the cause of a victimhood mentality, which is both unfortunate and a testament that people are not getting the help they need. That being said, obsessing over it is not a virtue, it will likely cause you to suffer more, and it will probably turn you into an ASSHOLE.
The fact that vulnerability is most often responded to with compassion in the Western world is testament to its success, it is not a sign of inhumane corruption. If you announced your vulnerability publicly in a society without resources, a complete absence of stability and riddled with injustice, then you would be beaten, robbed and left for dead before dawn. The value of human life approaches zero in such countries, so, if we still yet live, have a somewhat stable existence and enjoy numerous luxuries, then our lives cannot be that bad, all things considered. Things can always be better, but a complete absence of discomfort and injustice is a fairy tale.
Everyone has been victimized, some more than others, and some worse than others. A question should emerge however, that can be asked both internally and externally: why are you choosing to focus predominantly on your victimhood?
See: BAD ACTORS, PERCEPTION
(1) Kaufman, S. B., Unraveling the Mindset of Victimhood, June 29, 2020, Scientific American, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/unraveling-the-mindset-of-victimhood/
Revised: 18 Feb 2023
