St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church Lent 2013
Carlisle, Iowa
Our Desire for a Scapegoat By Fr. James Kirby French philosopher, Rene Girard, is famous for his work in cultural anthropology and theology. One of Girard’s bestknown contributions to culture and theology was thought and exploration into what is known as “the Scapegoat Mechanism” and its role in culture and throughout history. Essentially, the scapegoat mechanism is the tendency of groups, families, countries and cultures to consciously or unconsciously identify one person or a group of people as the cause for the woes, problems and suffering of a particular group. The identified scapegoat is the person(s) who the rest of the group tends to blame for the problems and pain of the larger group. Whenever any tragedy strikes, the scapegoat is included in the blame for whatever suffering the rest of the group or family is experiencing. Logic, evidence and truth have very little to do with assigning blame to the scapegoat. It is more about emotion and a distorted feeling collectively felt by the larger group. Not only is the scapegoat blamed for many of the problems a group endures, but eventually the larger group begins to imagine that things would be so much better if the scapegoat were expelled from the group. “If only he/she/they were not here, things would be so much better.” Sometimes the scapegoat is merely a symbolic avenue of blame for a family or team. Even so, the psychological effects of being viewed in this manner can cause painful and sometimes deep-seated developmental issues, especially among children. At worst, the larger group often harasses, mistreats and possibly ejects the emerging scapegoat from the group. Taken to the extreme the scapegoat(s) can even be bullied, abused and killed.
Throughout history certain societies and religions have taken the idea of the scapegoat to some extreme conclusions. In ancient Greece, a cripple, beggar or criminal was cast out of the community, either in response to a natural disaster (such as a plague, famine or an invasion). Sacrificing to the gods was a common theme of ancient religions that sometimes included sacrificing children and virgins by throwing them into an active volcano to appease angry gods. But worse yet, is the subtle, perhaps unconscious attitudes that groups and even entire societies can have toward a person or even a whole race of people. The best example in recent history was the Nazi’s who began a conscious campaign of the scapegoating of Jews during World War II. So much did they embrace the idea that the world would be better off without the scapegoated Jews, that they systematically went about trying to eliminate their presence by killing them all. As horrible and extreme as this example is, we in the USA should not let ourselves off the hook as Continued on page 2...