The Temptation of Innocence

Sound Bite

In this highly insightful essay on the culture of dependency and its damaging effects on the moral fiber of society — from corporate welfare to affirmative action — the author takes on the culture of copping out.It's a book against depression, existential angst, cry-babies and whining "victims," either acting like kids in a candy store or martyrs of their own fears. Men against women, women against men - isn't it time to grow up and take charge of our own destiny?

About the Book

French philosopher Pascal Bruckner argues that modern Western society has fallen into a strange trap: the more freedom we gain as individuals, the harder we work to escape the responsibilities that come with it. Published in 2000, this sharp and often provocative essay identifies two main escape routes we've taken — retreating into a kind of permanent childhood, and wrapping ourselves in the identity of the victim.

The first part of the book takes aim at what Bruckner calls our "infantophilia" — the cultural obsession with staying forever young, demanding instant gratification, and treating life as a continuous party where someone else picks up the tab. Consumer culture, he argues, has turned adults into overgrown children who want the rewards of independence without any of its burdens. The chapters on entitlement and the cult of self-expression are particularly pointed.

The second half shifts to victimhood, and this is where the book gets genuinely provocative. Bruckner examines how suffering has become a competitive sport and a source of social power, with everyone scrambling to claim the moral high ground of the persecuted. He devotes a remarkable chapter to Serbian propaganda during the Balkan wars, showing how even perpetrators of atrocities reframed themselves as history's true victims. He also tackles the gender wars, looking at how men and women weaponize grievance against each other.

Written in the tradition of sharp French social criticism, this is a challenging read that pushes back hard against the culture of dependency, copping out, and blame-shifting that has quietly reshaped public life.