In this lucid and brilliant essay, Daniele Giglioli investigates the origins and symptoms of what might be called the ideology of the victim in contemporary society. The victim is the hero of our time. Being a victim gives prestige, demands listening, promises and encourages recognition, activates a powerful generator of identity, of right, of self-esteem. Immunizes against any criticism, guarantees innocence beyond reasonable doubt. How could the victim be guilty or responsible for something? The victim has not done, they have done it; it does not act, it suffers. We are not what we do, but what we have suffered, what we can lose, what they have taken from us. But it is time to overcome this paralyzing paradigm that divides society into victims and guilty, and redesign a praxis, an action of the subject in the world that is creditor of the future, not of the past.