Are you confused? Do you feel logic and accountability are becoming redundant? Are you unable to wrap your head around the fact that you may get more than a rap on your knuckles for saying or doing something while others act with impunity?

Worry not. Such paradoxes are not just local, they are today a global epidemic.

Consider the Western outrage and action against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On the one hand, the European Union and its allies are arming the victim and sanctioning the aggressor. But on the other hand, the EU is buying Russian oil from third-party intermediaries, thereby financing Russia’s war against Ukraine which it claims to oppose.

Then, there is Israel. It has been appropriating Palestinian land for decades despite the United Nations' resolutions. Recently, Benjamin Netanyahu declared over 1,200 hectares of Palestinian land in the West Bank as "State land". But there was no outrage from Europe or America. Since Israel began its military operations in Gaza, it has killed thousands of civilians, especially children, and even weaponised hunger. Yet, America continues to arm Israel.

The morphing of victims into perpetrators and perpetrators cloaking themselves in victimhood is not limited to nations.

The victims of the Nazi Holocaust were not only Jews. They included the Roma-Sinti people, communists, the disabled and others. The formation of the Jewish State of Israel, which the Palestinians remember as Nakba, was formed in response to the Holocaust. Today, Israel continues to bear the moral shield of victimhood.

But not all victims of the Holocaust have been given that shield. The Nazis killed almost a quarter of Europe’s Roma-Sinti population. Decades later, this community continues to face prejudice. Both Jews and the Roma-Sinti people were the victims of Nazism. However, only one community was able to convert its victimhood into a position of power.

A similar distortion is visible in certain democracies where the majority religion lays claim to victimhood. Intriguingly, this idea of victimhood is based on a manufactured sense of humiliation caused by the fall and the decline of dynasties in the past. As a consequence, minorities in those countries bear the wrath of the majority even as vast swathes of the population, the victims of caste, slavery or gendered hierarchies, continue to be degraded and dehumanised.

This kind of resentment is not limited to particular communities. Many men now consider themselves to be victims of women’s autonomy and changing gender norms. People like Andrew Tate peddle their misogyny as a medicine to deal with the modern woman. Among other repulsive things, Tate said that it was a good thing his mother was subservient to his father. India, too, has innumerable Andrew Tate clones.

Taken together, these things show that victimhood can take many forms and even shapeshift from a moral position to a socio-political weapon.

This Age of Bewilderment would be amusing if it weren’t so damaging. It transcends the traditional conception of hypocrisy or the modern phenomenon of 'alternative facts’. Thriving in the Age of Bewilderment is thus based on such perverted notions as ignorance is bliss.