I See Satan Fall Like Lightning

by René Girard

and the absolute value wherever Western influence has had a deep impact, is a negative one: Nietzsche's interpreters avoid the subject. They circumvent Nietzsche's actual position on this subject. They revere Nietzsche; they look to him as the source of wisdom and his writings as a kind of holy scripture. However, it is extremely rare to find a "postmodern" follower of Nietzsche who raises a question about the very thing that Nietzsche railed against: the concern for victims that stems from Judaism and Christianity.2 The concern for victims has become such an absolute value that not only do those Nietzsche influenced not attack it, but it has become the unspoken dogma of "political correctness" and "victim-ism." Political correctness surrounds most of our public institutions, including above all colleges and universities, with an aura that prohibits using any word or allowing any discussion that might offend some minority group or victim or potential victim. It tends to stifle public discussion and debate of ideas and issues. Victimism uses the ideology of concern for victims to gain political or economic or spiritual power. Both political correctness and victimism stem from an authentic reality from the standpoint of the Christian faith. That reality is God's/ revelation through Jesus Christ of the victim mechanism and the way into God's new community of love and