The Curious Case of Scapegoating

By Ayesha Borker

Edited by Liz Maria Kuriakose

We are a species that love to talk. And why not? We have the most developed speech organs, so we will.

The world is saturated with a lot of events. Events involve people. People involve opinions. Many a times, it has been observed that one-tracked opinions are created within the society which eventually become the war cry of the entire mob. These opinions could be right or wrong. But surely a singular entity ends up being the centre of it all. All focus will veer towards it. You can call this entity a scapegoat.

On most occasions the scapegoat would be a justified one. On others, he won’t. But the entire activity of deriding the goat is surely enjoyed by all.

One of the biggest events that loomed over our country recently, was the battle of power- The General Elections. There were several parties vying for attention. Leaders trying their own tricks to garner public attention. People watching with a lot of interest. But we always need to find a scapegoat. A point where all the conclusion can be drawn upon. A point we can take and waste our energies with. We found one – Rahul Gandhi! For some weird reason, the entire election shifted from being a mass agenda of choosing the right governance to an anti- Rahul campaign. Suddenly, all of Congress’s faults belonged to one man- Mr. Gandhi. There are several reasons for this. Probably, his inability to exert himself. His lack of coherent vision. A disastrous interview with Goswami and the world was sure he could do nothing right. Maybe it is true. Maybe Rahul wouldn’t have been a good leader. He was never the one before to have his abilities disproved. But he became the butt of all jokes and of course the public was happy. Majority of our energies were spent in scapegoating a particular person and not really focusing on what our country needs. Maybe that brings satisfaction to most souls. Maybe the mob derives joy in deriding the other.

Similarly, Arvind Kejriwal. Maybe AAP did not really have in it to form a fully fledged government. Maybe Kejriwal is an amateur in ‘politics’. But he had one good point. He was the only one who focused on getting rid of corruption. It is a simple concept, if there is no corruption all welfare policies defined for the state, will work out eventually. For example; if the government declares to organize a certain world -level games (such as The Commonwealth Games) and decided to provide the best possible resources for it, then only a corrupt free environment will ensure its success. We may have a good leader at the top, but if the lower rung is corrupt, no policy laid out with the heart in the right place, would ever work out. We need to get rid of corruption first. Period. But no. Kejriwal had other flaws. He is more of an activist and not a politician. He didn’t really care for his seat when he took the anti-corruption cause. He cared for the Jan Lokpal more. He brought down his government. We found our scapegoat!

Probably Kejriwal’s actions were not sensible. Maybe he needed to show maturity. But suddenly, nothing matters because we have something to speak against. The joy of speaking against something surpasses all the needs of speaking for something productive. Or maybe following the mob is just easier.

On a more global level, we have Justin Bieber. A teen sensation that makes average songs which are a super hit and has huge female fan-followers. It is almost a fad today to hate him. It is cool to not like Bieber, even if you have never heard any of his songs.

On a philosophical level, it is almost cool to be an atheist. Anyone who believes in godly powers is not cool. A god – believer automatically becomes scapegoat.

What is the reason that we always end up finding things we can pass the blame on? Why is it so important that time and again we see humans fall prey to the ploy? So much, that all logic within the real problem is lost and only this point of derision and the action matters?

Plausibly because there always has to be someone who takes the fall. Only, then we can reach a definitive.


Ayesha has completed her engineering and is currently working.She has a very logical bent of mind and keeps an interest in a variety of topics. She has a passion for writing poems and maintains a blog too(/http://wondread.blogspot.in/). She loves creating things, coming up with ideas to build things from scratch ! She loves humor and is up to hear any joke ! Life is too short to be taken seriously !