La Zona Fantasma: The Victim Isn’t Always Right

One of the best indicators of the increasing audacity of our modern age is the pressing need so many people feel to be a “victim” of something, to enjoy the prestige of victimism. Without a doubt, it has its advantages—after all, its objective is to make other people feel guilty, and to reap benefits from that guilt—financial, material and otherwise. Who cares if the victims—and I mean the real victims, not invented ones—have been dead for centuries, or that the unjust circumstances under which they suffered have long since been outlawed: their “heirs”—in general self-proclaimed—continue asking for settlements from the supposed “heirs” of those who committed the injustice back in the day, and, I am afraid, this will probably go on for the rest of eternity. The more incommensurable the debt, the more likely these modern-day “victims” are nothing but charlatans and opportunists. I need not mention here that this almost universal trend has put an end to certain qualities that were once considered virtues, like dignity, pride, integrity, aversion to receiving handouts. And it has done away with some defects, as well: arrogance, superiority, scorn. People no longer feel the slightest bit of shame about calling themselves “victims,” or “secularly oppressed,” or perpetually subjugated, offended, harassed, and humiliated, and he who does not present himself in one of these categories will have little to say for himself, much less to gain, and doubtless will soon become a member of the other club, that of the “executioners” and the “oppressors.”

But now, what makes the role of the victim so convenient, so attractive? People who truly are victims, without quotation marks, certainly don’t consider their condition either convenient or attractive, and if you have any doubts about that point just ask someone who has suffered at the hands of terrorists—whether the ETA, IRA, or Islamic fundamentalist kind, it doesn’t matter.The people who truly suffer would give almost anything not to be victims—and I am referring to the dead (who can’t speak for themselves) as well as the wounded, the mutilated, the psychologically damaged, and their families. In the aftermath of their grave misfortunes, all they have left is a phrase repeated again and again by politicians, journalists, and even a few historians, which is not only false but terribly misleading:“The victims are always right.” No.The victims of terrorist attacks deserve all the compassion, solidarity, and support, both moral and material, that we can offer them. They also deserve our deepest respect and sympathies. They have been killed or injured not only in the name of everyone else, but instead of everyone else. Taking it a step further, we might even say that they have died or been injured...