A Nation of Victims: The Decay of the American CharacterCharles Sykes's ProfScam sparked a furious debate over the mission and the failure of our universities. Now he turns his attention to an even more controversial subject. A Nation of Victims is the first book on the startling decay of the American backbone and the disease that is causing it. The spread of victimism has been widely noted in the media; indeed, its symptoms have produced best-selling books, fueled television ratings, spawned hundreds of support groups, and enriched tens of thousands of lawyers across the country. The plaint of the victim - Its not my fault - has become the loudest and most influential voice in America, an instrument of personal and lasting political change. In this incisive, pugnacious, frequently hilarious book, Charles Sykes reveals a society that is tribalizing, where individuals and groups define themselves not by shared culture, but by their status as victims. Victims of parents, of families, of men, of women, of the workplace, of sex, of stress, of drugs, of food, of college reading lists, of personal physical characteristics - these and a host of other groups are engaged in an ever-escalating fight for attention, sympathy, money, and legal or governmental protection. What's going on and how did we get to this point? Sykes traces the inexorable rise of the therapeutic culture and the decline of American self-reliance. With example after example, he shows how victimism has co-opted the genuine victories of the civil-rights movement for less worthy goals. And he offers hope: the prospect of a culture of renewed character, where society lends compassion to those who truly need it. Like Shelby Steele, Charles Murray, and Dinesh D'Souza, Charles Sykes defines the ground of what will be a significant national debate. |
Contents
The Pursuit of Happiness | 27 |
The Therapeutic Culture | 33 |
Psychologically Correct | 53 |
I Have a Dream | 65 |
The Rise of the Victim | 75 |
The Revolt of the Kids | 87 |
Victim Chic Victim Therapy | 95 |
1 | 129 |
Presumed Victimized | 197 |
The Racial Nightmare | 211 |
43 | 227 |
Wrong Questions Wrong Answers | 231 |
A Moratorium on Blame | 241 |
Notes | 257 |
63 | 267 |
6532 | 276 |
Common terms and phrases
accused Adjustment Disorder Adorno Afrocentric alcoholism American argued assault attack attitudes Authoritarian Personality become behavior belief Berger bourgeois called campus character civil rights movement claim codependency compassion counter-reality court crime Daniel Bell declared demands described Dinesh D'Souza discrimination disease disorder economic embrace Emphasis added ethic ethos feel feminist genuine groups handicapped harassment Hispanics human Ibid ideology illegitimacy increasingly individual insisted issue Jim Sleeper Joe Klein justice Keniston Lewis liberal Live Crew male Memmi merely middle-class minority moral National notes one's oppression parents percent politics of victimization poverty problems professor programs psychological race racial racism radical rape reality Reich reported Richard Herrnstein role Ryan seems sense sensitivity sexist sexual Shrinking of America social society Stanton Peele status suffering symbolic racism Tawana Brawley therapeutic culture tion traditional University values victimist violence woman women writes wrote York young Zilbergeld