Scapegoat
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The scapegoat was a goat that was driven off into the wilderness as part of the ceremonies of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, in Judaism during the times of the Temple in Jerusalem. The rite is described in Leviticus 16.
The word is more widely used as a metaphor, referring to someone who is blamed for misfortunes, generally as a way of distracting attention from the real causes. Also referred to as the fall guy.
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[edit] Tradition
[edit] Hebrew Bible
Two very similar-appearing billy goats were brought into the courtyard of the Temple in Jerusalem on Yom Kippur as part of the Holy Service of that day. The high priest cast lots for the two goats. One goat was offered as a burnt offering. The second goat was the scapegoat. The high priest placed his hands on the head of the goat and confessed the sins of the people of Israel. The scapegoat was led away and let go in the wilderness according to Leviticus 16:22, although the Talmud adds that it was pushed over a distant cliff.
In modern Hebrew Azazel is used derogatorily, as in lekh la-Azazel ("go to Azazel"), as in "go to hell". (Azazel is the word translated as "scapegoat" in the King James Version of the Bible.)
The term 'scapegoat' is the result of mistranslation by William Tyndale circa 1530. He confused 'azazel' (the name of the cliff the goat was pushed over) for 'ez ozel' (literally, the goat that departs). Azazel appears in the scripture as the receiver of the [second] goat bearing the sins on its head.
[edit] Christianity
In Christian theology, the story of the scapegoat in Leviticus is interpreted as a symbolic prefiguration of the self-sacrifice of Jesus, who takes the sins of humanity on his own head, having been driven into the 'wilderness' outside the city by order of the high priests.
Controversial Christian anthropologist René Girard has provided a reconstruction of the scapegoat theory. In Girard's view, it is humankind, not God, who has the problem with violence. Humans are driven by desire for that which another has or wants (mimetic desire). This causes a triangulation of desire and results in conflict between the desiring parties. This mimetic contagion increases to a point where society is at risk; it is at this point that the scapegoat mechanism is triggered. This is the point where one person is singled out as the cause of the trouble and is expelled or killed by the group. This person is the scapegoat. Social order is restored as people are contented that they have solved the cause of their problems by removing the scapegoated individual, and the cycle begins again. Girard contends that this is what happened in the case of Jesus. The difference in this case, Girard believes, is that he was resurrected from the dead and shown to be innocent; humanity is thus made aware of its violent tendencies and the cycle is broken. Satan, who is seen to be manifested in the contagion, is cast out. Thus Girard's work is significant as a re-construction of the Christus Victor atonement theory.
[edit] Metaphor
When used as a metaphor, a scapegoat is someone selected to bear blame for a calamity. Scapegoating is the act of holding a person, group of people, or thing responsible for a multitude of problems. This is also known as a frameup. Scapegoats can also be referred to as patsies.
[edit] Political/sociological scapegoating
Scapegoating is an important tool of propaganda; for example, the Jews were singled out in Nazi propaganda as the source of Germany's economic woes and political collapse.
Scapegoating is often more devastating when applied to a minority group as they are inherently less able to defend themselves. A tactic often employed is to characterize an entire group of individuals according to the unethical or immoral conduct of a small number of individuals belonging to that group, also known as guilt by association.
"Scapegoated" groups throughout history have included almost every imaginable group of people: adherents of different religion, people of different race or nation or political belief, people differing in behaviour of majority. However, scapegoating may also be applied to organizations, such as governments, corporations, or various political groups.
In industrialised societies, scapegoating of traditional minority groups is increasingly frowned upon.
Mobbing is a form of sociological scapegoating which occurs in the workplace. From At The Mercy Of The Mob A summary of research on workplace mobbing by Kenneth Westhues, Prof. of Sociology University of Waterloo, published in OHS Canada, Canada's Occupational Health & Safety Magazine, Vol. 18, No. 8, December 2002, pp. 30-36.
"Scapegoating is an effective if temporary means of achieving group solidarity, when it cannot be achieved in a more constructive way. It is a turning inward, a diversion of energy away from serving nebulous external purposes toward the deliciously clear, specific goal of ruining a disliked co-worker's life. ... Mobbing can be understood as the stressor to beat all stressors. It is an impassioned, collective campaign by co-workers to exclude, punish, and humiliate a targeted worker. Initiated most often by a person in a position of power or influence, mobbing is a desperate urge to crush and eliminate the target. The urge travels through the workplace like a virus, infecting one person after another. The target comes to be viewed as absolutely abhorrent, with no redeeming qualities, outside the circle of acceptance and respectability, deserving only of contempt. As the campaign proceeds, a steadily larger range of hostile ploys and communications comes to be seen as legitimate."
Compare: moral panic; hue and cry; witchhunt, shoot the messenger, Blame Canada
[edit] Scapegoating in sports
In sports, scapegoats are common. In baseball, Bill Buckner is blamed for losing the 1986 World Series due to a critical error, and in Japan, the Hanshin Tigers blame the Curse of the Colonel on their repeated failure to win at the Japan Series.
In American football, Scott Norwood is blamed for losing the Super Bowl for the Buffalo Bills during Super Bowl XXV by missing the probable game winning field goal.
Andrés Escobar, a Colombian football (soccer) player, was shot dead after he scored an own goal that knocked his team out of the 1994 World Cup.
Marc-Andre Fleury, a Canadian ice hockey goalie is blamed for losing the 2004 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships gold medal game to the United States. As he came out of his net to clear the puck out of the defensive zone it bounced off Patrick O'Sullivan's leg and into the empty net.
In 2005, ESPN Classic created the series The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame..., in which it examines why the conceived scapegoat(s) should, in fact, not be held responsible.
[edit] Scapegoating in psychoanalytic theory
Psychoanalytic theory holds that unwanted thoughts and feelings can be unconsciously projected onto another who becomes a scapegoat for one's own problems. This concept can be extended to projection by groups. In this case the chosen individual, or group, becomes the scapegoat for the group's problems.
Karpman's Drama Triangle does a fine job of illustrating the Rescuer, Persecutor and Victim roles attendant in the scapegoating dynamic in any relationship of three or more people. SighKoBlahGrr's Rodger Garrett asserts that early life habituation to scapegoating can result in a paranoid interpersonal orientation with a likelihood of passive-aggressive personality traits in adolescence leading to unfortunate parataxical integrations (see Harry Stack Sullivan) between parents and teenagers.
If the scapegoating pattern continues into early adulthood, development towards healthy personal identity is likely to be compromised, with strong likelihood of histrionic, compensatory narcissistic, and/or obsessive-compulsive, as well as passive-aggressive traits. Fully-criterial personality disorders are likely, leading to severe, ego-protecting "affect management behaviors" including alcoholism, drug addiction and other substance and behavioral process disorders.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- 'The Scapegoat' (1854), painting by William Holman Hunt
- Scapegoating in Group Analytic Theory (PDF files)
