Here’s Why Nations Turn on Themselves: Insights From Scapegoat Theory
By: Emily Swan
Tags: Christianity, Life Lessons, Politics, Life, Culture

Anthropologist and literary critic Dr. René Girard, who finished his career at Stanford University, developed a theory over the course of his life called Scapegoat Theory, which purports to explain the origins of how and why groups self-destruct. I can not say if he is correct regarding the entire scope of his research, but Girard’s insights into scapegoating dynamics proved stunningly accurate when I faced a scapegoating event of my own: being publicly outed as a queer Christian pastor, and then fired from the church where I worked. (I went on to plant another church, Blue Ocean Church Ann Arbor, with my co-pastor and co-author Ken Wilson.)

Photo by Damien Petit on Unsplash

I studied Girard’s theory throughout my ordeal, and eventually wrote a book, Solus Jesus: A Theology of Resistance, with Ken Wilson, unpacking and applying Girard’s understanding of social dynamics. I think you will find understanding them useful as well — especially if you are an American in this day and age — when it feels like we are so divided that rumors of civil war are cautiously whispered in groups huddled around pints of microbrewed beer. (Or openly declared in a New York Times op-ed.)

In a nutshell, Girard’s theory of scapegoating says:

All human desire is mimetic, or imitative. I want something because you want something. (The entire advertising and marketing industry is built on this foundational idea.)

When we desire the same thing someone else desires, envy and rivalry can develop if we both can’t have the object of desire … or if we believe we can’t both have the object of desire.

Rivalries escalate, with each side growing increasingly desirous and each mimicking the others’ increased desire — until obtaining the object itself becomes less important than dominating the rival. Unbridled rivalry results in intense group anxiety/tension.

When group anxiety reaches a tipping point, violence erupts and the group turns on itself. Girard postulates that many of the earliest civilizations self-imploded.

Humans discovered a mechanism over time that prevents full-scale violence from breaking out. To save their communities from self-implosion, the group members identified a scapegoat on which to project their collective anxiety and envy and rivalry.

The scapegoat is rounded up, falsely accused of a taboo crime, and dehumanized. The people falsely accusing the scapegoat genuinely feel like they’ve been “victimized” by the scapegoat, and so justify the false accusations.

The group then forms a mob, uniting around the false accusations and condemnation of the scapegoat. Even those who might feel sorry for the scapegoat, or who are not sure the charges are accurate, often meld into the crowd by not speaking out. The silence of the majority enables the functioning of scapegoating mobs.

The scapegoat is then sacrificed — bullied, fired, exiled, isolated, crucified, incarcerated, killed, and/or deported.

— bullied, fired, exiled, isolated, crucified, incarcerated, killed, and/or deported. A false peace descends on the group and the group creates myths justifying the violence and disperses responsibility for said violence so no one claims responsibility for “what happened.”

The cycle repeats to manage group tension and maintain a false sense of stability.

to manage group tension and maintain a false sense of stability. Scapegoating cycles used to achieve a false peace mean that, in the end, no one is safe in the group. Because there will always be a “next time.”

Photo by Edgar Chaparro on Unsplash

Girard spent his life showing that this pattern repeats over and over throughout history. But you have to look for it, because most stories about scapegoating events are told from the point of view of the mob — from the point of view of those oppressing a vulnerable minority. From the point of view of those who preceive the (innocent) scapegoat to be guilty and deserving of punishment.

As a pastor I was particularly interested in Girard’s theory because he noticed that the Bible stands out in contrast to all other ancient literature. Instead of telling stories from the points of view of the oppressors, the Bible tells stories from the points of view of the victims, unmasking the guilt of the mob and the innocence of the scapegoats: Abel, Hagar, Joseph, David, Jeremiah, Stephen … and yes, Jesus. Girard converted to Catholicism as an adult after seeing this pattern.

But even if you don’t ascribe to Judaism or Christianity, the insights are still incredibly helpful. The fact is: groups who do not scapegoat their vulnerable members are subject to intense violence. When we refuse to marginalize the most vulnerable among us — immigrants, people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ+ people, the media, those who have been sexually assualted, and so on — it creates tension. Scapegoating within a group is unifying; resisting the temptation to scapegoat creates disunity.

We live in an age when the stories of the oppressed are being told and sizable numbers of people speak out against scapegoating. This is relatively new in its scope. Think of the backlash Donald Trump’s “Muslim travel ban” stirred up. More and more people stand with victims and potential scapegoats than ever before in history and that creates social anxiety.