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Scapegoating
[Jpost] Scapegoating is the misplaced and unmerited negative treatment or blame of someone for a problem. A scapegoat may be an adult, sibling, child, employee, peer, ethnic or religious group, country, or even an inanimate object. It's akin to kicking the dog when you've had a bad day at work.The appeal of scapegoating is that it reduces a complex problem to an illusionary simplicity. It creates the mirage that the problem can be solved simply by getting rid of or attacking the offending individual, object or group. Sadly, whenever a crime of the sort that happened a couple of years ago at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut occurs, pundits come out in full scapegoating mode. But rather than some group being blamed for the shooting, the guilt is being laid before objects, organizations, and ideologies. Some commentators were quick to blame the shooting on violent video games. Others blamed "a violent society that glorifies violence." Some insisted that it's all because "God has been taken out of the schools." And of course, the favorite scapegoat of all: guns and the NRA. Unfortunately, such scapegoating does not actually address the real problem at all. Nor does it keep what happened in any kind of perspective--admittedly difficult to do in the midst of the shock. But let's consider a few statistics to aim us in the proper direction: Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-03-16 |
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