The Scapegoat of Least Resort

from OpEd News:



By James Hunter

The United States is currently attempting to cope with two highly visible catastrophic events. The first is the continuing economic collapse. The second is the oil volcano in the Gulf of Mexico. A third catastrophe a nuclear war in the middle east waits in the wings. In all of these situations we will find a great deal of discussion about who is to blame. Answers of course vary in accordance with preconceived notions about how reality works, but in general people will identify an individual, a group of individuals, a governmental or business entity, or some combination of the above as the cause of the problem. There will be varying degrees of accuracy with regard to how different people assign blame, and I would not suggest that the discussion is wholly irrelevant. But the great danger in the present situation is that we will identify some individual or institution as the guilty party, punish them in some highly visible manner, tinker a bit with the system, and then proceed with business as usual right on down our present path toward global destruction. It is quite possible that this will be the outcome, because organizations tend to deal with situations in which seriously unacceptable events have taken place, or come to light, by finding a scapegoat of least resort. Let me explain what I mean by the "scapegoat of least resort."

Many years ago when I worked as a house parent in an state institution for juvenile delinquents, I occasionally resorted to the use of corporal punishment. I did not like to do so, but it appeared that my only alternatives were to occasionally bring out the belt, or to allow an intolerable degree of chaos on the unit. Given the kind of regimentation that this total institution demanded, and the very limited resources that were provided for maintaining order, I was able to see no way around this problem. It soon became clear to me that without any exceptions, all of the house parents used corporal punishment in one form or another. The administration at the institution was well aware that it was impossible to maintain order in a cottage of 25 or 30 juvenile delinquents without using corporal punishment. They were also aware that without exception the counselors did so. Occasionally a counselor would be caught, usually because he left a bruise on one of the boys. He would then be called before the administrators, and disciplined in some public manner.

In thinking about the painful conflicts that this aroused in me, I became aware of a simple fact about organizations in general that continues to be useful. When an illegal, embarrassing, or unacceptable behavior becomes manifest in any institution, the institution will generally resolve the situation by publicly chastising the scapegoat of least resort. By the "scapegoat of least resort" I mean that individual or sub-section in the institution who is the weakest and most easily expendable person or group in the hierarchy. In total institutions such as prisons, delinquency centers, armies, and perhaps schools, often the scapegoat of least resort is the individual who is expected to carry out the "dirty work" of the institution without allowing the means by which he accomplishes his goals to become visible. The punishment of the designated scapegoat gives the appearance of dealing righteously with the situation, while doing nothing at all to alter the underlying social facts that will inevitably lead to a continuation of the problem behavior.

....(snip)....

The government needs to be retaken by the people. This can only be done by a radical election reform that prevents the multinationals and the banks from buying their candidates. The policies that oversee the economic activity of every country in the world needs to be accountable to a legitimately elected body of legislators who are mandated to act in accordance with the public good.

Unregulated capitalism has destroyed our economy, destroyed our ecology, and destroyed our democracy. We have allowed the military-industrial complex to swallow up the resources that are sorely needed here in our country for the health, education, and welfare of its own citizens. We have allowed this criminal re-deployment of needed resources in order to feed one of the most horrifying war machines the world has ever known a machine that seems to have an insatiable need to bomb people. .......(snip)

The complete piece is at: http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Scapegoat-of-Least-Res-by-James-Hunter-100713-96.html

"Perhaps there is no way to bell the cat, but if so the future is bleak indeed. The fact is that the neoliberal establishment, the Washington consensus, the "free" or unregulated market system, the oligarchy, or whatever you want to call it, has yoked our species to a suicidal course of action. Already we hear the three horsemen of the new apocalypse: economic collapse, ecological destruction, and global war. Either we bring the neo-liberal establishment under control or we perish. We cannot afford to be satisfied, at this point, with prosecuting any scapegoat of least resort -- even one as big and as guilty as BP. The problem is larger than that. It is systemic."



The problem is that we really are in uncharted territory right now.

These are not some Robber Barons here. This is a nightmarish, hi-tech and militarized version, with highly sophisticated mechanisms of control in place.

They have more power than ever, and they are determined to stay in power.