Williams, Garrath (2008) Dangerous victims:on some political dangers of vicarious claims to victimhood. Distinktion - Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory, 9 (2). pp. 77-95. ISSN 1600-910X
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
As we have seen in the cases of Serbia and Israel, collectives can be mobilised to perpetrate grave wrongs on the basis of patently ideological claims about the harms they have suffered. This article seeks a theoretical understanding of this troubling phenomenon. It does so, first, by contrasting mobilisation based on vicarious victimhood with revenge. The groups in question do not exhibit the contact with reality and clear sense of agency that are prerequisites for revenge. However, these evasions of agency and reality are not specific to group identities centred on victimhood. Second, therefore, the article considers the attractions of such an identity and how it reinforces groups’ tendencies to myth-making and irresponsibility. Among its more harmful effects, it obscures the realities of state power and forecloses meaningful accountability to those outside the group. It also sets in train a vicious circle, whereby the group discovers perverse incentives to harm others – and to harm itself. Yet these harms only reinforce the group’s self-anointed status as victim: as always done by, never doing to.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Journal or Publication Title: | Distinktion - Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory |
| Additional Information: | This version includes some footnotes omitted in the published text. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Collective agency ; collective responsibility ; Israel ; myth ; nationalism ; Serbia ; victimhood |
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) |
| Departments: | Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences > Politics & International Relations (Merged into PPR 2010-08-01) |
| ID Code: | 14468 |
| Deposited By: | Dr Garrath Williams |
| Deposited On: | 20 Oct 2008 09:26 |
| Refereed?: | Yes |
| Published?: | Published |
| Last Modified: | 19 Nov 2012 16:39 |
| Identification Number: | |
| URI: | http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/14468 |
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