The Immoral Necessity For Scapegoats
What one Black man does, all Black men do. If a Black man breaks into your house, you have the right to shoot any Black man. Because what one does, makes all others guilty.
Why leave it as men only? Why not all Blacks are responsible for what other Blacks do. No matter their sex. No matter where they live, their guilt or innocence, they all share the guilt, because they’re Black.
That’s right, a few genes and a higher degree of melanin and you are guilty.
Sound racist?
This is where someone inevitably says “But that’s how it was for Black folk in America, and it wasn’t that long ago.”
What they mean is, there used to be legal slavery in America, so whatever some White people did, all White people did. Because they were White.
Yes, a few genes and lower degree of melanin and you’re guilty.
Sound racist?
How many people owned slaves in America? That seems a relevant question.
Less than 2%. That includes Blacks who owned thousands of Black slaves, as well.
“Oh! You didn’t know that?” I’m not surprised, leaving me to ask; what do you know?
What most people know about history can be summed up in a meme, which is why memes have become so popular. I’ve found this to be true of Americans of all colors. For instance, once you get past slavery, lynching’s and Martin Luther King, most Americans, whether Black, Brown or White know remarkably little about Black history. Meaning, when they’re confronted with ideas that run contrary to their long-held beliefs, they quickly get confused and angry. It’s like someone walking up and saying “Hey, you know those religious beliefs that you hold so dear, well, they’re total bullshit.” That’s why it can be easy to manipulate people. But you have to do so using familiar sounding ideas, framed with compassionate sounding rhetoric. And, you also have to appeal to their prejudices.
More than 70 years ago, Hitler laid the blame for Germany’s financial troubles of the 1920’s and 1930’s on the Jews, because bankers and money men tended, as often as not, to be Jewish. Hitler left Germany’s central role in starting WWI out of the equation, which had been less two decades before. And Germans, being exhausted by war and suffering with massive hyperinflation and the resulting poverty, were easy targets for his propaganda. This led directly to WWII. If the world thought that WWI, with a death toll of 18,000,000 was bad, it would seem like a walk in the park, compared to WWII, which gave us more than 4 times as many deaths. The Jews served as unwilling scapegoats for the Germans, who needed a sacrifice for their own sin. The truth about Germany’s sinfulnrss was more than nice, educated Germans could take—and the resulting horror was unlike anything humankind had ever seen.
Today, right here in America, lies and distortions about race and slavery, economics and morality abound. And they do so for the same reasons as always, because sinners need scapegoats, and will spare no expense in terms of blood and treasure to find one.
The next time one is needed, which may be closer than people think, will likely involve the whole world. America is not alone in this, any more than Germany was 70 years ago. In fact, America may be the strongman needed to step into the gap to stop it all. But only if we can keep from destroying ourselves first. As it is now, this seems unlikely.
The void left by America’s absence as the world’s leader will be filled. By what or by whom? That is the question. Based on history, it won’t be benevolent, it almost never is. Malevolent will be more like it, and then a scapegoat will be necessary once again. Who will it be? Go look in the mirror and ask yourself that question. Because it will be you that ultimately makes that choice.
Mark Magula
Why leave it as men only? Why not all Blacks are responsible for what other Blacks do. No matter their sex. No matter where they live, their guilt or innocence, they all share the guilt, because they’re Black.
That’s right, a few genes and a higher degree of melanin and you are guilty.
Sound racist?
This is where someone inevitably says “But that’s how it was for Black folk in America, and it wasn’t that long ago.”
What they mean is, there used to be legal slavery in America, so whatever some White people did, all White people did. Because they were White.
Yes, a few genes and lower degree of melanin and you’re guilty.
Sound racist?
How many people owned slaves in America? That seems a relevant question.
Less than 2%. That includes Blacks who owned thousands of Black slaves, as well.
“Oh! You didn’t know that?” I’m not surprised, leaving me to ask; what do you know?
What most people know about history can be summed up in a meme, which is why memes have become so popular. I’ve found this to be true of Americans of all colors. For instance, once you get past slavery, lynching’s and Martin Luther King, most Americans, whether Black, Brown or White know remarkably little about Black history. Meaning, when they’re confronted with ideas that run contrary to their long-held beliefs, they quickly get confused and angry. It’s like someone walking up and saying “Hey, you know those religious beliefs that you hold so dear, well, they’re total bullshit.” That’s why it can be easy to manipulate people. But you have to do so using familiar sounding ideas, framed with compassionate sounding rhetoric. And, you also have to appeal to their prejudices.
More than 70 years ago, Hitler laid the blame for Germany’s financial troubles of the 1920’s and 1930’s on the Jews, because bankers and money men tended, as often as not, to be Jewish. Hitler left Germany’s central role in starting WWI out of the equation, which had been less two decades before. And Germans, being exhausted by war and suffering with massive hyperinflation and the resulting poverty, were easy targets for his propaganda. This led directly to WWII. If the world thought that WWI, with a death toll of 18,000,000 was bad, it would seem like a walk in the park, compared to WWII, which gave us more than 4 times as many deaths. The Jews served as unwilling scapegoats for the Germans, who needed a sacrifice for their own sin. The truth about Germany’s sinfulnrss was more than nice, educated Germans could take—and the resulting horror was unlike anything humankind had ever seen.
Today, right here in America, lies and distortions about race and slavery, economics and morality abound. And they do so for the same reasons as always, because sinners need scapegoats, and will spare no expense in terms of blood and treasure to find one.
The next time one is needed, which may be closer than people think, will likely involve the whole world. America is not alone in this, any more than Germany was 70 years ago. In fact, America may be the strongman needed to step into the gap to stop it all. But only if we can keep from destroying ourselves first. As it is now, this seems unlikely.
The void left by America’s absence as the world’s leader will be filled. By what or by whom? That is the question. Based on history, it won’t be benevolent, it almost never is. Malevolent will be more like it, and then a scapegoat will be necessary once again. Who will it be? Go look in the mirror and ask yourself that question. Because it will be you that ultimately makes that choice.
Mark Magula