Description
No one disputes that some people are victims-of others, accidents, and life.
However, we also know of people who seem stuck in a victim mentality and make life worse because of their intense focus on events they can’t change. Often, they avoid responsibility for their own actions. On a personal level, the chronic victim-thinker can be toxic. But what happens when grievances dominate entire societies?
The Victim Cult tackles the worldwide grievance culture and from ancient Rome to the White House of today and on to campuses where some think themselves victims of “micro-aggressions.” The book also looks at how corrosive victim thinking fuels movements as diverse as violent Antifa anarchists, and Donald Trump’s “Capitol Hill” demonstrators.
The destructive nature of chronic victim thinking
Victim cults are not new. Historically, some victim cults have deep roots and, if not exposed and confronted early, end in tragedy. Some examples: Many 19th-century Germans thought they were victims of the French, the English, liberalism, and the Jews. Adolf Hitler later exploited that victim narrative to turn the land of Bach and Beethoven into the nation known for Dachau. Yasser Arafat spent a lifetime viewing himself and all Palestinians only as victims. Thus, when offered a peace deal with Israel, Ararat cratered it.
In this wide-ranging look at why societies fail or succeed, The Victim Cult takes us through fair and fake claims. Beyond true victims, it also explains why victim cults arise: Missed historical lessons, faulty moral reasoning, and misguided politics. The Victim Cult then also details the positive lessons from those who were harmed but yet succeeded.
This timely book will be sure to stir debate.
About the Author
Mark Milke, Ph.D., is an author, columnist, and president of a new policy think tank. With six books and dozens of studies published internationally in the last two decades by think tanks in the United States, Canada, and Europe, Mark’s books, reports and columns have touched on everything from taxes, government, property rights, and history, to cancel culture and the folly of identity politics. He has also written on why cultural “appropriation” is a good thing—it’s called cultural sharing—and what is core to success in society: treating each of us as an individual.
Mark is a Canadian who almost ended up an American—his great-great grandfather was from Wisconsin and fought on the side of the Union in the U.S. Civil War. Milke also wrote the political party platform for the new government of Alberta. He is also president of the local Winston Churchill Society. Mark Milke’s website is www.markmilke.com.
