The Scapegoat: An Analysis

Although Girard’s second chapter of The Scapegoat may discuss persecution among certain groups of people because of false perceptions, it is really about people's desires to utilize scapegoats as a way of justification for their misfortunes, but their reasoning for scapegoating is ultimately irrational.

In the second chapter of his book, “Stereotypes of Persecution”, Girard offers an explanation. As he himself claims, “they (men) are disconcerted by the immensity of the disaster but never look into natural causes.” (Girard, 1982, p.14) This quote primarily serves to explain that when people are under attack for whatever reason, they turn to anything but reasonable and provable explanations. This rationale seems illogical at first glance. Science

LeBon hypothesizes, “ He will be the less disposed to check himself from the consideration that a crowd being anonymous and in consequence irresponsible, the sentiment of responsibility which always controls individuals disappears entirely.” (p.154). What LeBon is essentially considering is that individuals, once in a group, lose all sense of responsibility. This theory complements the Canetti’s theory mentioned in the previous paragraph. It is this loss of responsibility that causes crowds to turn into mob and even cause revolutions of persecution. Furthermore, it is safe to imply that this loss of responsibility contributes to scapegoats. A key word to notice is ‘contagion’. LeBon repeats this word several times. Perhaps he is repeating this word because maybe the loss of responsibility spreads over members of crowds like a disease. After all, when one is sick, he is not his normal self. It can argued that the disease of islamophobia among thousands of Americans prevailed because of this sudden ‘freedom of responsibility’. If islamophobia were less influential and common after the attacks, then individuals may have not acted in such a rash manner as they did towards muslims and