SCAPEGOATS & THE BLAME GAME
Human beings need someone or something to blame when things go wrong. This is probably part of our genetic code. It doesn’t even matter if the person or thing identified as the scapegoat had anything whatsoever to do with the actual mishap or disaster. Basic logic and scientific or legal causation are simply unimportant when compared to the emotional satisfaction of laying blame on anyone other than the true culprits or yourself.
Since ascertaining the real causes of disasters and bad events may be rather difficult due to a myriad of conflicting and coalescing actors and events, humans just don’t bother with such an analysis. Historians, scientists and legal scholars may finally determine the culprits long after the event, but most people need a scapegoat now – or even before any blame-worthy event occurs.
People around the U.S. have been acrimoniously debating who are the responsible parties for our many economic, political, social, financial and military disasters. People cannot even agree upon the pertinent facts. Inconvenient ones are frequently ignored and ugly immovable facts are endlessly finessed as being tangential or irrelevant. Ultimately most people prefer fixing the blame on their perceived enemies and thereby absolving themselves from any and all possible responsibility. Even if we get a set of culpable parties, then we have to apportion blame and levels of culpability from the largest to the smallest – which prolongs the entire process endlessly.
This mindless rush to judgment and then endless and bitter debates for years thereafter are simply wastes of valuable time, money, energy, and brain power. We need simple explanations in order move on and instead address how we proceed to repair the damage from whatever disaster has befallen us.
To that important goal of saving time and avoiding too many silly arguments, I propose a few scapegoats to be used in most situations. These choices may violate every principle of scientific and legal causation, but we’re talking base emotions and the pleasure/pain receptors of human brains. Common sense and facts are completely irrelevant to this post – and to most of this nation’s public discourse in the 21st Century.
For all environmental, climatic, and weather-related disasters (including earthquakes, tsunamis, global warming, tornados, heavy rains, glacial melting, oil spills, nuclear accidents, and the like) we should simply blame former V-P Al Gore. Not only conservatives can deny global warming but even if it is occurring as he originally brought to public attention, it’s still Mr. Gore’s fault. Furthermore, he is the one responsible for fixing it and thus rendering Republicans completely blameless for whatever happens on the planet. Progressives may scream lunacy and try to defend Mr. Gore, but why bother? We dispensed with the long and arduous inquiry and arguments about logic, facts and causation. Since it’s all just Mr. Gore’s fault we can all move on.
For many years I used to blame the lousy weather in Cleveland on the local weatherman for FOX News. A friend of mine pointed out the major logical and scientific flaws to my analysis. The man was a Republican and therefore wholly blameless for anything – innocent and white as the snow that falls in Cleveland as late as April or May. I moved to Phoenix in 2006 where weather occasionally interrupts the endless heat and sunshine. The local news stations sometimes devote their entire evening broadcasts to the 5 minutes of rain that fell earlier during the day unless the Arizona Governor, the State Legislature, and/or Sheriff Joe do something stupid again.
With respect to all domestic and many international disasters, including economic and political calamities, blame resides solely with President Barak Obama. He originally became responsible for everything in January 2007 when he was sworn in as a U.S. Senator from Illinois. Little did we realize that President George W. Bush was no longer to blame for anything further that occurred in the U.S. or world after that date even though he did not leave office until January 2009. (It is wholly irrelevant that W. didn’t know or care what was happening in the world after 2007.)
Republicans prefer simple answers to complex issues whereas Democrats fret over and analyze facts endlessly without ever coming to a clear consensus even among them selves. Americans don’t need to worry about blaming too many actors and entities for too much endless bad news. It’s easier to dump it on the mixed-race questionable-birth no-drama Obama. Thus any future government shutdowns and related pain felt by millions of people will solely be his fault. Wasn’t that easy and painless? Now let’s move on.
Some may point out that both Obama and Gore could be blamed for the recent Japanese earthquake, tsunami, nuclear accident and subsequent economic damage to that country and the global automotive and computer manufacturing chains. Under this new theory of making scapegoats of people just standing there, this might make sense. Others may suggest that the Japanese government and its entire business culture may also be at fault. But with Obama and Gore as the proper scapegoats, all of Japan and the world can stop finger-pointing, feeling guilty, and instead focus on the important tasks of cleaning up and moving on to the next disaster.
Some argue that President Clinton and a Republican Congress repealed Glass-Stengel and failed to regulate the financial and banking sectors adequately. These actions may have ultimately resulted in the financial sector meltdown in 2008. However this overlaps the time period when President (Senator) Obama is primarily to blame. Fortunately, they were both Democrats. So again, even though Republicans may have controlled Congress from early 1995 through early 2007 and George W. Bush may have ostensibly still been President in 2008, the blame fall on those worthless, tax-and-spend Democrats. Slam dunk and we can all move on.
If there is a shutdown of the Federal Government over the current year budget, next year’s fiscal budget, or the need to raise the debt limit next month, the public and many media commentators will blame various parties and everyone is already trying to put the best spin on their opponent’s culpability. Many pundits have noted that Republicans were blamed for the 1995 government shutdown but how were they punished by voters? They continued to control both houses of Congress until 2007 and we had a Republican President from 2001 to 2009.
However, President Obama will be solely to blame for any and all government shutdowns that occur during his term in office. He and Democrats may continue to be blamed for everything that comes later even though they might be out of office after 2013. This avoids endless finger-pointing and time wasted analyzing the messy back-room negotiation process. Again, we can all happily move on.
Some argue that the collapse of the nationwide real estate bubble in 2007 that continues today may have a slightly different genesis. Both parties and independents try to lay blame on all types of institutions, actors, policies and programs, separately from or in tandem with the financial sector implosion. One could even argue that both were related. Amazingly enough, default on less than 5% of all mortgages (those wonderful subprime loans) cause the entire Ponzi scheme and over-valued House of Cards to collapse. These types of sudden and massive collapses happen in excessively complex, interrelated, fraudulent, and corrupt systems that are beyond human control or understanding. Pull out a few small blocks and the whole phony edifice completely crumbles.
Even though the financial and real estate meltdown occurred all across the nation and in every metropolitan area, we must affix blame to somebody. Home foreclosures first started in large numbers back in the poorer cities around the Great Lakes. The worse cases may have been in California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada but we must trace it to just one or two easily identifiable places and groups of people. Thus the housing collapse and subprime mess are solely the responsibility of poor people in Detroit and Cleveland. Some will vociferously claim this analysis is completely flawed, prejudiced, warped, and disingenuous. Thank you for the compliments.
This most pleasurable part in identifying scapegoats is not just abandoning reality and the truth, but it includes the emotional satisfaction that comes with pinning blame on someone who is blameless. Historians and other learned people in academia will continue the culpability analysis – providing endless fodder for graduate dissertations. More importantly our public discourse will no longer have to worry about these issues and we can all move on.
This simple scapegoat process would be very useful for our wealthy oligarchy and the titans of finance and banking. Since no one of significance has been prosecuted for the many crimes that were committed in the creation of these bubbles, for overvaluing all types of assets and selling securities based upon these worthless assets, and engaging a variety of fraudulent transfers and accounting tricks, it seems obvious that they have escaped all blame and legal liability. If they are held not responsible, someone must be and those greedy, scheming financial wizards and homeowners in Detroit and Cleveland are the most likely culprits. They should lose all their healthcare, social security, unemployment and food stamps as punishment.
I’m sure we need a few other scapegoats for other situations, but I remind commentators to make an effort to use the same person or group of people for as many disasters, calamities, mishaps, and screw-ups. For instance, we need to identify the reason for the NFL strike and lockout that may prevent any Professional football from occurring during the last 5 months of 2011 and the first 2 months of 2012. Many people will jump to blame either the owners or the players. Neither is at fault. Emotionally, does it feel right blaming President Obama, former V-P Al Gore, Democrats, or the poor in Detroit and Cleveland? We need another simple scapegoat for this type of situation and for similar ones to come. These upcoming messes may involve the cancellation of the next season of the National Basketball Association; future college sports scandals, The Fiesta Bowl Mess in Arizona, and the endless sex-escapades of Tiger Woods.
And who should we blame when another conservative and staunchly anti-Gay member of Congress is discovered in a secret homosexual relationship unbeknownst to his wife? Certainly we can’t blame any of the participants, or genetics, hormones or extreme hypocrisy. Extreme patriotism might justify heterosexual marital infidelity and multiple divorces, but we really need an individual – not a state of mind – as an adequate scapegoat. I ask readers to toss around Charles Darwin, Evolution, The Big Bang, or Steven Hawkins as possible culprits for the many things we didn’t want to happen.
There is one caveat: The Pope and the Papacy are never to be blamed for anything since they are infallible. This might cause many non Roman Catholics (Jews, Moslems, Protestants, Buddhists, etc.) to cry foul since they might claim to be outside the Magisterium and Church Authority and therefore are able to affix blame upon The Universal Church for a variety of disasters. Little do they realize that all humans are subject to its rules and traditions.
The Church always gets the last word on blaming anyone or anything for whatever happens. Any earthly institution that can last for 2,000 years deserves some slack since it has seen every possible human sin committed during its existence – frequently by its own members. It also asserts it has the final say on who is forgiven from sins, and who gets to go to Paradise, Purgatory or Hell. Just because you think you’re not covered by the Church or don’t believe in these 3 destinations, you still might be. (Mormons are still busily baptizing all dead non-Christians but no longer are bragging about it publicly. Once you’re baptized as a Christian by any denomination, you’re under the Church’s authority.)
The Church in its infinite wisdom may even send some people to my favorite place “Limbo.” (This writer – an agnostic former Catholic – will likely go to Hell for what has been written in the previous three paragraphs.)
I’ll save my musings about infinity, time-travel, inter-planetary vacations, and good wines for future posts. Best wishes to everyone for the upcoming Holidays.
Submitted 4/8/11 by Marc Pascal from Phoenix, Arizona.
Arguably, Christianity is based upon the ultimate blame game. It takes a perfectly innocent, blameless, wise and obscure Jewish Rabbi of the 1st Century CE, and makes him the sacrificial lamb to die for all of mankind’s past, current and future sins. This refined theological rationale was not the original reason for His Crucifixion and Death. Rather Jesus Christ was likely viewed as a dangerous enemy of the Roman Empire because of his many words and actions contrary to the status quo. Thus Rome’s Imperial Representatives (not the Jews) had Him eliminated as an example to others in Judea to not question who was boss.
Later Rome sacked and destroyed all of Jerusalem to completely quell intense local insurrections and to further impress upon its residents that nobody messes with Rome. This also began the Jewish Diaspora, the relocation of the early Christian Church headquarters to Rome, and it marked the complete and final break between the two Religions.
Very soon, some Christians and Jews will try to make amends by jointly celebrating Passover and stepping delicately away from joint Easter parties. (One could easily serve lamb for Easter instead of Ham.) Various theologians and Christian traditions argue that Christ’s subsequent bodily Resurrection and Ascension to Heaven was a confirmation of his special messenger/prophetic status including likely divinity from birth, and a reminder that we still must do God’s work here on earth as a precondition to Salvation.
At best, agnostics can embrace the theological/mathematical wager proposed by Blaise Pascal concerning the existence of God. He said it was a safer bet to live life as if God exists. Eternity is a really long time and no one should logically lose a 50-50 flip of a coin. Then you would have only yourself to blame.