Book
Anale
by Tacit · 117 · 1 reading card · public domain
AuthorTacit →ShelvesPower and the polity
1 card
Anale · 117
The aggressor turns the victim into an enemy to justify their own guilt.
Tacitus describes a perverse psychological mechanism: the aggressor, to justify the deed, turns the victim into an enemy. Hatred does not come from what the victim did, but from the aggressor's need to reduce cognitive dissonance. A boss who unfairly fires an employee may start to despise them, to avoid acknowledging their own injustice.
“They hate those whom they have injured.”