There is a disturbing thesis that it is due to the Christian heritage of the West. Christianity, and particularly Catholicism, glorify martyrs.
Martyr does not refer only to a religious causality. One of the alternate definitions is: “One who makes great sacrifices or suffers much in order to further a belief, cause, or principle.”
Nathan Hale was a martyr because he believed that rebelling against tyranny meant more than his individual life, and I respect and glorify him for it.
People who the Nazis executed for protecting and hiding Jews were martyrs, and they also deserve respect and glorification.
Our own military history is full of men who covered grenades with their body, and those men held the belief that the lives of their buddies were more valuable to him than their own lives.
Nietzsche made that point.
He called Christianity “slave morality” as contrasted with “master morality”.
“In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche (1844-1900 CE) detects two types of morality mixed not only in higher civilization but also in the psychology of the individual.
Master-morality values power, nobility, and independence: it stands “beyond good and evil.” Slave-morality values sympathy, kindness, and humility and is regarded by Nietzsche as “herd-morality.”
The history of society, Nietzsche believes, is the conflict between these two outlooks: the herd attempts to impose its values universally, but the noble master transcends their “mediocrity.”[1]”
Basically, the weak gain power by guilt tripping the strong into giving them what they want. It’s worked rather well for them.
See my tag line.
So does Islam.
Disturbing? That’s a stupid thesis. Martyrs are the opposite of victims in terms of Faith.