Scapegoats have no place in modern society
Imagine: A priest is invoking words of salvation and purification as he stretches his hands over you and your friends. He speaks of your acts of sin, greed and lust. He casts them from your souls into ... a goat?
That's right. This exact phenomenon took place thousands of years ago in Israel as a ritual for the Jewish Day of Atonement, according to Leviticus 16. If you are not familiar with this ritual, you will undoubtedly recognize the beloved term that it coined: scapegoat.
Yes, the scapegoat has been a ready friend to many in American society. In modern day we have turned scapegoating into something of an art form, blaming people and religions at will.
Likewise, the media embraces this unfortunate creature and is willing to point an accusatory finger before a case has even been laid.
Our long line of treasured scapegoats can be traced far back into our history. When the Puritans first arrived here in the 1600s, they faced multiple hardships. They had just escaped the oppressive Church of England and were now struggling against food shortages, harsh winters and a lack of political order.
They needed to blame someone for their misfortunes, so they pointed their collective finger at witches, "Mistresses of Satan," "Lovers of the Underworld," "Vengeful Wraiths of the Night" or any other name you prefer. The Salem Witch Trials were born.
When settlers moved westward in the 1800s, manual labor was in high demand. In 1868, a law was passed that allowed the Chinese to immigrate here and become California's main source of labor. As the rest of the West developed, however, the number of working whites rose, and the Chinese were no longer needed. Thus, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion acts. The Chinese became the "evil minority" that assumed the blame for all the white laborers' grievances.
After World War I, we were paranoid as never before. Americans witnessed the communist overthrow of the Russian czar and assumed we were next. In the words of Walter Lippmann, assistant to the secretary of war, Americans were "scared out of their wits."
Our insecurities again led us back to our much-loved-scapegoat diversion. This time we singled out hundreds of supposed communists such as the "Hollywood Ten" and the Rosenberg couple.
The scapegoat lived on through the Great Depression as President Hoover took the wrap for all of America's troubles and his infamous "Hoovervilles." During the Civil Rights Era, blacks were blamed for everything under the sun. Recently, the Muslim faith has been targeted time and time again for acts of extremism and violence.
American have perfected the use of the scapegoat over time so that we no longer need to prove blame to a specific person or group to believe in their guilt. President Bush has led us to war with Iraq over the elusive reasoning of "war on terror," supposed "weapons of mass destruction" and "pre-emptive strikes" (also known as the "get-them-before-they-get-us" theory).
After all these years, I have faith that we can break this cycle of senseless blame and ignorance and end the scapegoat's pathetic existence. By taking responsibility for our actions, democratic duties and our worldview, we can prevent this destructive blame from taking hold of our country and world.
Write to Carla at caalderman@bsu.edu
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