Abstract
Campbell and Manning discuss the puzzle of moral differences and argue that their theory of victimhood culture is valuable for understanding and explaining contemporary moral debates. They address the question of why sociological analyzes of victimhood culture commonly attract positive attention from those who are skeptical of this culture, while attracting moral condemnation from those who embrace it. They conclude but discussing practical applications of their work. Specifically, they present sociologically informed strategies for those who want to minimize conflict, preserve free speech, and otherwise uphold the ideals of dignity culture.
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- 1.
In a series of innovative experiments, Angela Leung and Dov Cohen (2011) found that people from more honorable cultures (such as the US South) who endorsed honor violence were more likely to be honest and helpful than those who did not. In contrast, people from dignity cultures (such as the US North) who endorsed honor violence were less likely to be honest and helpful than those who did not. Their explanation for this is that people who fail to adhere to one aspect of the prevailing moral code are more likely to fail to adhere to other aspects as well. The honor and dignity cultures represented in the study both value honesty and helpfulness in similar ways, but have opposing values regarding violence. Therefore endorsement of violence is an indicator of less integrity in one culture and greater integrity in the other.
- 2.
The term victimhood culture has been used before, but we have seen no one else define it as we have and classify it as a moral culture distinct from honor and dignity cultures.
- 3.
That this is so can lead to the charge that because we have not addressed some topic in detail, we do not find it morally or practically significant. That we have focused more on hate crime hoaxes than actual hate crimes, more on the far left than on the far right, more on moral panics over rape than on the problem of rape itself, can lead readers to jump to the conclusion we are not at all concerned with hate crimes, rape, or right-wing extremism. This is simply not so. We focus here on a phenomenon that we find sociologically interesting because of its newness and because of its contrast with the moral cultures we have been writing and teaching about for years. Our interest does not imply anything about the relative moral importance of any widely recognized problems in the modern world.
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Campbell, B., Manning, J. (2018). Conclusion. In: The Rise of Victimhood Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70329-9_8
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