Scapegoating

You will believe you are doing the right thing

The following is a comment from my latest video on Bob Moran’s cartoon that broke the internet.

It hits the nail on the head. As I’ve spoken about and written about before, the Jewish people have been designated the role of society’s scapegoat. This happens in family systems all the time— I’ve experienced it myself.

The scapegoat is a vessel for the tension and conflict in a family, or at scale, in society. When tensions become elevated, as they have during the past few years, people seek a cathartic release. They do this unconsciously. They release their inter-rivalries by displacing their resentment onto the scapegoat.

The scapegoat is either dealt with by exile or violence, at worst, murder. It is a ritual sacrifice.

Girard alludes to the reason the Jewish people sacrificed goats (book of Leviticus, where the term scapegoat comes from) was to end the pre-civilizational practice of human ritual sacrifice.

Girard argued that Jesus was the “lamb of God” precisely because He was put on earth to show humanity the nature of its violence — to end the scapegoating mechanism before it escalated into violence, by showing them the truth— that it is the victim who is innocent, and the mob who is guilty.

The only way to end the scapegoating mechanism in action is to shine a light on it. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

If you’re unaware of the scapegoating, it is because you are a part of it.

As René Girard said, “If you scapegoat someone, it's a third party that will be aware of it. It won't be you. Because you will believe you are doing the right thing.”

You will believe you are doing the right thing. This is an essential insight.

Scapegoats are always the victim, but the mob projects their guilt onto them and turns them into the guilty. They side with the perpetrator, because they identify with the perpetrator. Existential guilt and shame are part of this projective identification.

Watch my video here:

To learn more about René Girard’s insights on this, you can read here:

Short excerpt from my recent podcast with

Norman Fenton

where we discussed this:

The HIDDEN MECHANISM Behind Mobbing | Norman Fenton & Kate Wand

All about projection & its relationship with family systems and narcissism:

How To Survive In A Narcissistic Society with Nathalie Martinek PhD & Kate Wand