Feeling like a victim feels really rough. So why have I found it so attractive and difficult to shake?
- It's black and white. That saves me from processing the complexity of reality.
- I'm right and you're wrong. Delicious.
- Because I'm aggrieved, I'm absolved of moral responsibility. I can be harsh, shrill, irrational, illogical, condemnatory, punitive, destructive, shaming, caricaturing, impatient, intolerant, pitiless, and unforgiving. I can emotionally leak on anyone; I can emotionally vomit on anyone. I can foster antagonism towards you. I can rally the mob. I can destroy you. But it's OK because you did a bad thing.
- The associated anger masks my own guilt, inadequacy, and fear.
- I don't have to examine, challenge, and change my own beliefs, thinking, and behaviour.
Sound familiar?