In this brave new world our young adult daughters are entering, one of the most pernicious human failings they will face is the victimhood mentality, sometimes called “the doctrine of hurt feelings.”
These days, everyone wants to be a victim. If you’re not truly a victim of something, American society will now help by creating an “ism” tailor-made for you out of thin air. Nothing is your fault. It’s our fault for having a bias against your (pick one) age / gender / orientation / weight / skin tone / religion / nation of origin / employment / income / opinions / um, handedness, um … did I miss anything?
One reader even accused me of “bullying” him – I kid you not – because I didn’t respond to his highly offensive emails insulting my husband and children. So now he’s a “victim” of bullying. See how this works?
And, of course, when someone has the cajones to call out someone’s “victimhood” status, they’re promptly labeled racist, judgmental, sexist, hater, intolerant and other colorful epithets.
What’s behind this tendency to divide people into finer and finer sub-groups? Doesn’t anyone remember the motto on America’s Great Seal – E pluribus unum (“Out of many, one”)?
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