Do you speak Victimese?, inquired Mark upon handing his passport to the airport customs agent.
Oh yes!, replied enthusiastically the agent. Here in North America, everyone speaks Victimese, as well as many of its dialects, including Providential Martyrdom and Excruciated Narcissism.
The agent gave a visibly relieved Mark a moment to luxuriate in his vulnerability before proceeding with some routine questions.
What is the purpose of your visit?
To nurse my grievances, pin the blame for my suffering on others and the system, and reap the special privileges owed to me for the personal slights I dramatize into trauma.
Do you have any emotional resilience to declare?
None whatsoever.
In the last six months, have you travelled anywhere you might have been in contact with reality or accountability?
I have, but only to boost my immunity against empathy pathogens that may infect my self-righteousness.
How long will you be staying?
I intend to apply for permanent victimhood.
Welcome, said the agent as she stamped Mark’s passport. Live long and suffer!
Everywhere we scroll, we North Americans are perpetually recovering from perceived slights against our delicate ego, slights we inflate into oppression so we may turn our fragile identities into moral currency. Previous generations raged against challenges by overcoming them. We glorify victim narratives to proselytize outrage.
This culture of sob storytelling and suffering oneupmanship we so covet is energizing a metastasizing collective refusal to take ownership of our actions and cope with anything that tests our mettle, breeding petulant humans who catastrophize challenges as harmful to their mental health and as justification for the relentless blame-deflecting finger pointing sparking a carpal tunnel epidemic.
Individuals are prevailingly identifying as victims, even vying for victim status, perceiving it as a source of attention and, ideally, social brownie points for suffering more than everybody else.
Besides being a kick in the stomach for legitimate mental health advocacy, this gutless trivialization of suffering society insists on rewarding instead of encouraging dealing with difficult situations, obstacles, conflicts, criticism, this trauma posturing, this disturbingly amplified manifestation of woe-is-meism, helplessness and powerlessness cheapens the human spirit.
When adversity came knocking, we knew to tackle and hopefully surmount it with grace. We did not turn affliction into a licence for special privileges. We met it with resilience, accountability, and self-esteem — not its delusional cousin, self-worth.
It helps when suffering enjoys the moral leverage of being real.