The Scapegoat Trap
By Wade Lee Hudson
Modern society's driving force is the desire to dominate and the willingness to submit. Submission may be involuntary, as with prisoners, but the promise of money and security seduces people to conform. Seeking wealth, status, and power is central. Hyper-individualism fragments society.
People worship “saviors” and disrespect “inferiors.” Lack of respect often takes the form of scapegoating — placing total blame for problems on others. This dynamic is at the root of many crises. Worse yet, it distracts from positive social change.
Nevertheless, as far as I know, no activist organization encourages its members to help each other unlearn this self-centered dominate/submit conditioning. This neglect makes it hard to build an other-centered systemic reform movement.
“You can be whatever you want” is a constant message, but it’s a lie. People with advantages have a head start. Limited opportunities exclude many. Ambitious individuals use unethical means to advance. Cheating, corruption, and deception are widespread. When one person wins, others lose. Wealth is a way to keep score. Winners disrespect losers, who often feel inferior. Corporations exploit workers and the environment without regard for long-term consequences.
The result is widespread frustration, and people often take out their anger on handy targets — a family member, their boss, a racial or ethnic group, powerful elites, the opposing political party, Donald Trump, or some other scapegoat.
I first encountered the notion of a scapegoat when I worked as an orderly in a psychiatric institution run by Dr. “Bob” Beavers, whose System Model of Family Assessment significantly impacted psychiatry. His study of family systems led him to conclude that families often vent their frustrations on one family member, which worsens the scapegoat’s suffering.
In the Bible, after the chief priest had symbolically laid the people's sins upon it, Hebrews released a goat into the wilderness, believing the animal would take with it all the sins and impurities of the community. But today, instead of a goat, it's a political opponent, a racial group, or world leaders who bear the brunt of society's frustrations.
Foreign policy illustrates the use of scapegoating in the political arena. External enemies rally nations and divert attention from domestic ills. The looming New Cold War with China poses this threat.
In the New York Times essay, “Can Liberalism Save Itself? Samuel Moyn argues that President Franklin Roosevelt had communicated great optimism with a promise “to unshackle humanity after millenniums of hierarchy” with his affirmation that the “government’s duty was to help people overcome oppression.” But during the Cold War, liberals shifted their focus and glorified individual liberty and the free market. They neglected “the belief that freedom is guaranteed by institutions that empower humanity.”
Communism threatened liberty worldwide, but “a liberalism of fear” exaggerated the threat. This approach rationalized supporting brutal authoritarians abroad and led to “several decades of endless wars against successor enemies.”
The collapse of the Soviet Union provided liberals an opportunity to “rethink their creed” and acknowledge mistakes. Instead, they “doubled down” with more militarism. Now, they’re “shocked by blowback” from “beneficiaries” who have found mere electoral democracy wanting.
Moyn argues that “liberals can revive their philosophy’s promises only by (undoing) the Cold War mistakes that led them to their current impasse.” He writes:
Liberals seem to be betting their success less on a positive vision for America’s future and more on the ability of courts to protect the nation… Liberalism that survives must resonate with voters who want something to believe in. And liberalism once had it, revolving not around fear of enemies but hope in institutions that lead to what (John Stuart) Mill called “experiments in living.” He meant that people everywhere would get the chance from society to choose something new to try in their short time. If their hands are forced — especially by a coercive and unequal economic system — they will lose what is most important, which is the chance to make themselves and the world more interesting… Only a liberalism that finally makes good on some of its promises of freedom and equality is likely to survive and thrive.
It's easy to identify and rally against foreign "enemies." It's more challenging to recognize the blame game within our borders.
Society weaves together our institutions, our cultures, and ourselves as individuals into a single self-perpetuating social system — the System. This rigged system, which has existed for thousands of years, encourages everyone to climb social ladders, look down on, dominate, and exploit those below, and submit (often involuntarily) to those above. The System justifies this status quo by giving individuals too much credit for “success” and too much blame for “failure.” This process often takes the form of scapegoating.
We must hold systems administrators and elected officials accountable for crimes and misdeeds. However, activist campaigns that pressure key decision-makers to change policies can avoid demonizing their targets. “Insiders” and “outsiders” are both necessary.
Everyone is a pawn, a victim, and an oppressor. Responsibility is widely shared. No individual is totally to blame. Leaders can be easily replaced. Scapegoating one individual or group is misleading. The core problem is the game itself.
Personal efforts aren’t enough. Political activists must also redesign their organizations and society at large. New, democratic social structures are essential. To move forward, we must change the game, establish a new purpose for humanity, and reform our systems and ourselves to serve that purpose.
With compassionate cooperation, mutual aid, and collaborative leadership, we can transform the System, avoid scapegoating, and balance personal and collective responsibility. With mutual empowerment, we can create a just and caring society and serve humanity, the environment, and life itself.