A crowd listens to speakers at a reparations rally outside of City Hall in San Francisco, on March 14, 2023. Jeff Chiu/AP Photo
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Commentary
In “I Suffer Therefore I Am: Portrait of the Victim as Hero,” Pascal Bruckner exposes the moral vanity behind our obsession with victimhood. With his customary erudition, the French essayist turns his gaze upon a civilization that has transfigured suffering and pain into prestige. If Descartes proclaimed, I think, therefore I am, Bruckner’s age replies: I suffer, therefore I exist.
Patrick Keeney, Ph.D., is an academic and columnist.
