''The Tyranny of Guilt: An Essay on Western Masochism'' (french: La tyrannie de la pénitence. Essai sur le masochisme occidental) is a book by

Pascal Bruckner Pascal Bruckner (; born 15 December 1948, in Paris) is a French writer, one of the "New Philosophers" who came to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s. Much of his work has been devoted to critiques of French society and culture. Biography Bruckner ...

about the origin and political impact of the contemporary political culture of Western guilt. It was published in French in 2006 as ''La Tyrannie de la Pénitence: Essai sur le Masochisme Occidental'' and in English in 2010.

Roger Kimball Roger Kimball (born 1953) is an American art critic and conservative social commentator. He is the editor and publisher of ''The New Criterion'' and the publisher of Encounter Books. Kimball first gained notice in the early 1990s with the public ...

regards ''Tyranny of Guilt'' as a sequel to Bruckner's 1983 book '' The Tears of the White Man''.

Richard Wolin Richard Wolin (born 1952) is an American intellectual historian who writes on 20th Century European philosophy, particularly German philosopher Martin Heidegger and the group of thinkers known collectively as the Frankfurt School. Life Wolin gr ...

preferred to describe it as a "pendant," a revisiting of the theme of ''Tears of the White Man.''

Themes

Bruckner acknowledges Western sins including racism and slavery, but points out that the west is also responsible for the creation of such things as civil liberties, modern democratic government and abolitionism. "There is no doubt," Bruckner writes, "that Europe has given birth to monsters, but at the same time it has given birth to theories that make it possible to understand and destroy these monsters." The problem with the tyranny of guilt, according to Bruckner, is not the West is without sin, but that the Western culture of remorse is a disabling form of narcissism that makes it impossible to effectively criticize contemporary non-Western violations of human rights. Bruckner argues that the West has inadvertently collaborated with

Islamists Islamism (also often called political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism) is a political ideology which posits that modern states and regions should be reconstituted in constitutional, economic and judicial terms, in accordance with what is c ...

who seek to destroy Western liberal values and political freedom by focusing on western sins including slavery, imperialism, fascism, communism, thereby conceding the right of

to impose their standards on the Western countries to which they immigrate.

Julia Pascal Julia Pascal is a British playwright and theatre director. Biography A Jewish atheist, Pascal's stage plays include three grouped together as ''The Holocaust Trilogy''. The first of these is ''Theresa'', based on historical accounts of a Jewish w ...

summarizes part of Bruckner's argument as an argument that "Europe has never recovered from its own barbarity and that now it seeks to cleanse its original sin with a new Eden; even if this Paradise has 70 waiting virgins." The target of Bruckner's critique, writes

Brendan Simms Brendan Peter Simms (born 1967, Dublin) is a Professor of the history of international relations in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge. Early life Brendan Simms is the son of Anngret and David Simm ...

, is "an eagerness to apologize for the sins of colonialism and genocide and other Western crimes" that simplistically defines every Western state as a "penitant... never an innocent victim of terrorist attack but a deserving one: It has, after all, provoked the wrath of the oppressed, either at home or abroad." Douglas Murray describes Bruckner's characterization of the tyranny of guilt as a form of self-flagellation, a kind of moral intoxicant that "People imbibe because they like it... It lifts them up and exalts them." According to Bruckner, the Islamo-leftist pushing of the idea of the centrality of Western guilt in contemporary politics idea originated with the

Socialist Workers Party (UK) The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is a far-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded as the Socialist Review Group by supporters of Tony Cliff in 1950, it became the International Socialists in 1962 and the SWP in 1977. The party co ...

goal of replacing traditional Communism with a worldwide movement to "spearhead a new insurrection in the name of the oppressed." This ideal caught fire beginning in the 1960s, reinvigorating Western leftism with the idea that the United States and Israel are the great oppressors, and uniting the European Left, and the

Islamic Republic of Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

in a world view according to which "the Jew has become the Nazi, the Palestinian the Jew and radical Islam is now the victim of Western democracy and not its executioner." Bruckner sees the beginnings of "sexual

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

" in Europe in such things as the institution of separate hours for men and women at public swimming pools.

Publishing history

The 2010 translation into English was done by Steven Rendall.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tyranny of Guilt 2006 non-fiction books Books in political philosophy French essays French-language books Works by Pascal Bruckner