The ‘China virus’ and scapegoating
One of the locations for the attack in Atlanta, Georgia.
In today’s news, the murder of Asian-Americans in Atlanta, Georgia. ( https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56433181) It is still too soon to say what motivated the killing spree, although the shooter claims it was not racially motivated. But the events seen to segue smoothly into a context in which, goaded on by Trump’s repeated description of the pandemic as being caused by the ‘China virus’, Asian-Americans have been targeted for violence. So, in this blog I want to explore ‘scapegoating.’
These latest tragic events remind me once again that one of the most important interpreters of the crisis of our age is the French philosopher René Girard (1923-2015). Girard moved to the United States in the 1950s and spent most of his life there, and in works such as Violence and the Sacred and Things Hidden Since the foundation of the World, he discussed how the notion of the sacred is inextricably linked to the problem of human violence. Girard described how the ‘victimage mechanism’ lies at the roots of religion and ideology as there is a deep connection between spontaneous collective violence and the organized violence of ritual, which seeks to channel it in ways that preserve the stability of society. In particular, Girard discussed the ‘scapegoat mechanism’, which has a double meaning in the sense of being a ritual institution often established within an institutional (usually religious) framework, and an unconscious, spontaneous, psycho-sociological mechanism that generates violent actions.
The purpose of the scapegoat is to ensure collective catharsis for those doing the scapegoating, the directing of spontaneous violence towards specific and controllable ends. But crucial to the success of this process is the fact that the scapegoaters believe in the justice of their actions. They believe the scapegoated are guilty, even though they are actually innocent. Here is Girard in Things Hidden Since the foundation of the World :
The expression scapegoat comes from caper emissarius, a term in the Vulgate that is a liberal interpretation of the Greek apopompaios: ‘one who wards off illness’. The latter term, in the Greek translation of the Bible known as the Septuagint, is itself a liberal interpretation from the Hebrew, the exact translation of which would read: ‘destined to Azazel’. It is general thought that Azazel is the name of an ancient demon said to inhabit the desert. In Chapter 16 of Leviticus the ritual treatment of the goat is described as follows:
And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and send him away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities upon him to a solitary land; and he shall let the goat go in the wilderness., (Leviticus 16, 21-22)
History is full of the corpses of scapegoats, especially during periods when a society is engendered by invisible forces, such as viruses. During the Black Death, the Jews were common scapegoats, and they have continued to play this tragic role within Christian (and increasingly Islamic) culture up to the present day.
Scapegoating of Jews during the Black Death.
Behind the problem of violence lies what Girard terms ‘mimetic desire’. We imitate each other. Or, more precisely, we imitate our designated role models. The petrol company in Korea, GS, has the slogan ‘I am your Energy’, and this has always struck me as very Girardian. Mimetic desire means we believe that the others have the vital energy we need. Our desire is borrowed, even though one of our most cherished beliefs is that our desire is our own, is, indeed, what makes us individuals. But this, Girard says, is a delusion. Because we are fundamentally mimetic creatures we are continuously in a fraught state of mind that combines admiration, emulation, envy, and resentment. Problems mount up as the role models move from an external position – that is, they are distant and unobtainable – to an internal position, where they are within reach. One of the primary effects of the Internet is to have moved role models from the distant outside to the close inside, with very worrying consequences. Now our role model is easily transformed into an obstacle, and this means ‘mimetic rivalry’ grows, and becomes dangerously destabilizing for a society.
It is evident that Trump has at least an instinctual grasp of the importance of engaging the ‘victimage’ and ‘scapegoat’ mechanisms. He knew that when a mortal threat has no visible shape or form it is especially terrifying, and will inevitably lead to random and spontaneous violence which must be channelled. Before the pandemic, he scapegoated Mexicans. During the pandemic it is the Chinese. As Trump also recognized that China is the future main rival to American hegemony, the scapegoating of Chinese people is useful, too. But as the scapegoater is not a nuanced thinker, all East Asians will be potential sacrificial victims. It is still too soon to say how widespread the new wave of scapegoating will be. But the lesson of history is, alas, that things do not bode well for East Asians in the United States. In any confrontation, the more ‘diabolical’ the enemy seems to be, the more likely one is to ensure ruthless and avowedly justified behaviour from one’s followers.