Scapegoat
The scapegoat has a long and horrible history. It originated with the ancient Jews when a goat was sent of into the wilderness to carry the sins of the village away as part of the atonement ceremony. In today’s language it has come to mean something a bit different. The modern scapegoat is the group that takes the blame for whatever problem the larger society is facing. In most instances the scapegoat is a traditional out group. A group that is either small in number or in power.
The powerful members of the tribe select the group they want to blame and then send out the propaganda to make the rest of the group believe they are to blame. The Jews themselves were scapegoat in the second world war in Europe. After the terrible losses of the first war Germany was in dire straits and the Nazi party succeeded in blaming the ills of the nation on the Jews and rode to power on their backs. In America we have used other groups as scapegoats ourselves in history.
Early on, before the nation became a nation, we were scapegoat a few old midwives. When the harvest was not quite right or the cow started giving sour milk we called this out group witches and started burning them at the stake. In the history of this country and others, the scapegoat has also had various kind of polictical significance, such as blaming a particular political party for the ill-faring of another. Many of these scapegoat themed issues arrive and hold a certain significant pressure on voters in times of election, –one party is demonized and the majority view mounts to oust the other, whether through publication, or media.
