In this wide-ranging look at why societies fail or succeed, The Victim Cult explains how victim cults arise: Relentless blame of others, faulty moral reasoning, and misguided identity politics.
No one disputes that some people are victims—of others, accidents, and life…
But we also all know someone who seems stuck. They make life worse because of an intense focus on the past. On a personal level, the chronic victim-thinker can be toxic. But what happens when victim narratives dominate entire societies?
The Victim Cult tackles this too-easy reflex to take offense and blame others, from college campuses to the heights of political power. It also infects citizens who see each other as victims or privileged but never as diverse individuals with choices.
Moving beyond victimhood
The Victim Cult also details the more positive lessons from those who were harmed but yet succeeded: the example of early Asian immigrants who courageously dealt with injustices and trumped prejudice, but also aimed at integration, education, and entrepreneurship—choices that built a better America with opportunities for all.
Review
”This excellent book was eight years in the writing and it shows. But not because it is pedantic; on the contrary, Milke wears his scholarship lightly. His crisp, polished prose belies the exhaustive research that permits him to speak out so boldly and broadly on what is a sensitive, often culturally weaponized subject.” – Barbara Kay, National Post
“Belongs on your shelf next to Dalrymple and Jordan B. Peterson. The Victim Cult is genius. I consider it the perfect companion to Icarus Fallen—another work teeming with insight on the twisted psychology of post-modernism.” – Leia Ben, from reviews for the Canadian version of The Victim Cult
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.
