Scapegoats

Scapegoating is the practice of singling out any party for unmerited negative treatment or blame. A scapegoat may be a child, employee, peer, ethnic or religious group, or country. A whipping boy or “fall guy” is a form of scapegoat.


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.

Since this goat, carrying the sins of the people placed on it, is sent away to perish, the word “scapegoat” has come to mean a person, often innocent, who is blamed and punished for the sins, crimes, or sufferings of others, generally as a way of distracting attention from the real causes, and their solution.

I know this is not new, but it is something best avoided. Scapegoating is the easy option perhaps, but I feel it is ultimately a cop-out. Surely responsible adults are capable of working out that they may perhaps carry some sort of responsibility, and not lay the blame on others. When you ultimately remove the scapegoat, be it government, others with whom you disagree, a perceived threat, you may just have to come to terms with the real cause of your dissatisfaction with life, or the society of which you are a member.

Or do you merely find another scapegoat? The chances are, I suppose, that there is always another scapegoat round the corner.

21 thoughts on “Scapegoats”

  5. I believe in Ancient Greece it was generally the man who had upset his fellow citizens the most or who was thought to have offended the gods and thus brought some sort of disaster on the town who was chosen.

    Your goat looks quite sweet, Araminta.

  6. I can’t actually see that the goat automatically ‘perished’ Leviticus style, unless they helped it on its way!
    Happenstance it went off and found somewhere else to live happily ever after!
    Whichever, it still had the tremendous advantage of not being on the Levitican’s patch eating their food, dropping its hair, kids and ordure all over the place.
    Sounds like a damned good idea to me.

  8. Christina.

    You are probably right; it may well have been symbolic. Why waste a tasty goat?

    It may have either been rounded up to take part next year or they had a splendid feast.

  9. Hello Ara: We in the Marches have a history of more sophisticated behaviour, Even in the recent past families would pay a “Sin Eater” to assume the sins of a recently bereaved. For a small fee, often no more than a token meal of bread and wine, the sin eater would take upon themselves the sins of the departed and then be driven from the household taking the accumulated sin with them. Perhaps there is an opportunity here for the gainful employment of some of the otherwise unemployable media studies graduates.

  10. sheona :

    I believe in Ancient Greece it was generally the man who had upset his fellow citizens the most or who was thought to have offended the gods and thus brought some sort of disaster on the town who was chosen.

    Your goat looks quite sweet, Araminta.

    Socrates was one such victim….

  11. Socrates drank the hemlock, didn’t he? There was at least one Greek island where the elderly were also invited to relieve the community of their presence in the same way, I believe.

  12. Indeed, the old Greeks beleived in ‘katharsis’ or ritual cleansing which was considered beneficial to whole communities.

  14. It’s always terribly easy to find someone to blame for things they might not necessarily be responsible for. In fact, it’s much easier than actually thinking things through. There is a difference between not putting up with much rubbish and just being moronic/unfair.

    As for the media studies students… I’m a history major, so my field isn’t necessarily much better so I’ll leave that alone. However, people who go to university to get a degree in dance… That is too tempting.

  15. A lot of the time I feel like a stranger in this somewhat ethereal blog world. When confounded I can usually rely on that Great Google in the sky for answers to my supplication. Unfortunately the Great Google is like a Greek or Roman oracle, where the responses are aways a ‘win-win’ for the oracle and a ‘win or lose’ for the supplicant.

    So who or what is ‘Minty MBE’? I guess it not Chris Minty MBE , but thanks for that information anyway GG. I’m sure it’s not the managing director of the Wigan sweet firm which produces Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls and who has been appointed MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. But until now I never knew that Uncle Joe had mint balls [I do recall that Uncle Joe was keen on Mrs Keen].

  17. Hello, Christopher.

    Yes, scapegoating is lazy, moronic and unfair, but it seems to happen even in the best regulated societies.

    Have you finished jet-setting around the world?

  18. PB,

    Minty MBE was my doing I am proud to say.

    Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back over on the darks side when Shane outsourced to Oneshite and the whole blogosphere went posterior over lady bump, Araminta did some astounding detective work under her mouse avatar and discovered many new ways to actually get blogging done despite the evil machinations of that Arkansas chug-a-bug, off the shelf bloatware.

    In recognition of her sterling efforts I recommended her for the coveted award of Mouse of the British Empire (MBE). Ever since I have used the honorific wherever possible out of respect.

  21. Minty, MBE: well, for a few months. A few days after Christmas I will fly to Germany for about two weeks for family obligations. (Grandparents are ageing and in poor health, consensus is that they’re on their last life) After that it is off to South Korea and Japan in March, before perhaps getting ready to move to Minnesota at the end of the year.I’ve decided to get my MA/PhD before trying to emigrate.

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