The myth of the perfect victim sort of reminds me of a Hank Green video I watched recently about Tuberculosis (I think?). He briefly discussed the idea that there's a part of human nature that looks for explanations, and we'll take any that make us feel better. So when people get sick and die we might say "that happened to you because you were bad, you did something wrong. And it won't happen to me, because I'm good, and I won't do anything wrong." Because the truth, that what happened was horribly unjust and that there's nothing stopping it from happening to me, that's pretty hard to live with.
That's very insightful. Honestly I think you're right. When we perceive risks that are in some way unpredictable our brains tend to try and find patterns and justifications. And if we don't find them we invent mythology to explain them. As a (not very effective) attempt to regain control I guess :/
The myth of the perfect victim sort of reminds me of a Hank Green video I watched recently about Tuberculosis (I think?). He briefly discussed the idea that there's a part of human nature that looks for explanations, and we'll take any that make us feel better. So when people get sick and die we might say "that happened to you because you were bad, you did something wrong. And it won't happen to me, because I'm good, and I won't do anything wrong." Because the truth, that what happened was horribly unjust and that there's nothing stopping it from happening to me, that's pretty hard to live with.
That's very insightful. Honestly I think you're right. When we perceive risks that are in some way unpredictable our brains tend to try and find patterns and justifications. And if we don't find them we invent mythology to explain them. As a (not very effective) attempt to regain control I guess :/