The Pleasures of Victimhood

Victims have certain advantages if and when they recover. But the most significant relate to causality. When you start to cough you want to know if it's Covid, RSV, TB or a good old common cold. The worst thing is finding out that the reason somebody stepped on your foot was not because they wanted to hurt anyone, but rather because they didn't see you, pay attention to you, worse didn't even know you existed--until you let out a shriek that is. A victim is someone who's been hassled. It can be by a repressive regime, or partner for the that matter. Sometimes it's real abuse, but there's a saving grace. Everything else in your life plays second fiddle once the sexism or profiling takes over. You now know and can be sure that you're a victim of such and such and can find the chapter of your local support group. The fact that you were a delusional before you were traumatized, no longer matters.

listen to Joan Baum's review of The Kafka Studies Department on WSHU

and listen to "What a Fool Believes" by The Doobie Brothers