The victim is the one who creates the executioner

I. Introduction: The Unsettling Idea

“The victim is the one who creates the executioner.The victim is the one who creates the executioner.” It’s a sentence that lands like a punch. It challenges our understanding of power, suffering, and agency. It suggests that those who are harmed may, in some twisted way, be complicit in the rise of their oppressors.

That doesn’t mean blame. It means complexity.

The world is full of “executioners” abusive bosses, tyrannical governments, manipulative partners. But few of them rise in a vacuum. Many are enabled, tolerated, even empowered by the very people they exploit. Why?

This article explores the uncomfortable psychology behind complicity, obedience, and fear and what we can do to interrupt the cycle.

II. Power Requires Permission: How Authority Is Built

Power is rarely seized; it is granted.

In 1961, psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a now-infamous study where participants were instructed to deliver electric shocks to strangers. Despite visible discomfort, many obeyed. Why? Because an authority figure in a lab coat told them to.

The lesson: people are conditioned to obey. Social roles and cultural scripts push us to comply, even against our moral compass. The same patterns show up in workplaces, politics, and relationships where the “executioner” appears not as a villain, but a boss, a parent, a leader.

The groundwork of control is laid when people internalize power hierarchies and stop questioning them. As psychologist Albert Bandura noted, “Moral disengagement” allows people to separate their actions from their ethics especially when consequences seem indirect.

III. The Role of Fear, Survival, and Learned Helplessness

Sometimes, the cost of resistance feels higher than submission.

Victims often endure injustice not because they agree with it, but because they feel they have no choice. This is the heart of learned helplessness a psychological state where individuals believe they can’t change their circumstances, even when they can.

Abusive systems whether political regimes or dysfunctional families rely on fear. Fear of punishment. Fear of isolation. Fear of worse outcomes. Over time, this fear breeds silence and passivity. People choose comfort over confrontation. Safety over justice.

But silence becomes scaffolding. It gives abusers the room to operate unchecked.

IV. Historical and Modern Case Studies

1. Nazi Germany

Hitler didn’t seize power alone. Millions participated, enabled, or stood by. Many Germans weren’t radicalized ideologues they were bureaucrats, neighbors, workers. Hannah Arendt called it “the banality of evil”: ordinary people upholding horrific systems because it felt normal, or because they feared the cost of resistance.

2. Silicon Valley’s Culture of Silence

In 2017, Uber employee Susan Fowler exposed a toxic work culture of sexism and retaliation. Before her, dozens had stayed silent fearing career suicide or legal backlash. The silence allowed abuse to metastasize. Speaking out came at a cost, but it was the only way to stop the cycle.

3. Domestic Abuse

In emotionally abusive relationships, victims often defend their abusers. They fear being alone. They blame themselves. Abusers manipulate them into believing they deserve mistreatment or that no one else will care. The victim becomes a guardian of their own prison.

V. The Cycle of Enabling: Victim and Executioner in Dynamic

The executioner needs validation. Control depends on a steady supply of permission.

Victims often play a role unknowingly or under pressure in maintaining the status quo. This can take the form of compliance, denial, even praise. Over time, the roles harden: the abuser gets bolder, the victim feels smaller.

Psychologists call this “coercive control.” It’s not just physical it’s emotional, psychological, even financial. Victims may feel responsible for the abuser’s well-being. They become complicit in their own oppression because they see no escape.

VI. Breaking the Pattern: Individual and Collective Resistance

You break the cycle by refusing to feed it.

That doesn’t mean dramatic rebellion. Sometimes, resistance looks like setting boundaries. Saying “no.” Refusing to normalize toxic behavior. Supporting whistleblowers. Calling out gaslighting. Creating space for dialogue, not silence.

At a systemic level, this means organizing. Unionizing. Voting. Supporting movements that challenge unjust power. It means teaching people especially the young to question authority, think critically, and speak up early.

The antidote to victimhood isn’t blame it’s empowerment.

VII. Conclusion: Choosing Power Over Submission

“The victim is the one who creates the executioner.” It’s not a moral judgment. It’s a warning. When we allow fear, comfort, or silence to rule us, we risk building the very systems that hurt us.

The good news: cycles can be broken.

When individuals reclaim their agency, when groups challenge the status quo, when stories get told change begins. The first act of resistance is recognizing the role we play. The second is choosing differently.

Which one will you take?