Os Guinness on Victimhood Culture

“In all the problems created by victim playing, three are common today and clearly evident in American politics. The danger for individuals is that those who portray themselves as victims eventually perceive themselves as victims and then paralyze themselves as victims. When it comes to groups, those who wish to identify themselves as victims end by becoming instruments for the political purposes of others, thereby compounding their dependency and victimhood. The danger for society is that when young people are allowed to learn only the negative lessons from history, to justify the victim narrative, they end in reinforcing the evils from their past rather than remedying them. They have been trained to use the injuries of the past to serve the interests of their future and thus to ignore the real responsibilities of the present.”

Os Guinness, The Magna Carta of Humanity, pgs 118-119.

Victim culture does significant damage to the psyches and lives of those who buy in, and creates political and financial opportunities for those who have the power to promote it.