[Dialogue] Fwd: [dmin-list] scapegoating terrorism and 9/11

[LAURELCG@aol.com]

Forwarded by Jann McGuire, who doesn't know the word "pharmakos" and can't 
find it in the dictionary.  I'll ask the person who sent this to me if he knows. 
 (see end for source.)

<< Great article from Karen Armstrong:


"Saddam was an obvious pharmakos, because he was undoubtedly a cruel,

repulsive and polluting presence. But for many years he had been the protege

of Britain and the United States, who armed him and looked the other way

when he gassed the Kurds. Saddam became an unwelcome reminder of aspects of

western foreign policy that were becoming embarrassing, because our support

of such rulers in the Middle East has contributed to our present

predicament. Saddam was our demonic alter ego, and we needed to purify

ourselves from this contamination, cast him out of the family of nations,

and demonstrate that he was now our polar opposite.


The scapegoat ritual is rooted in a profoundly dualistic worldview. It makes

it clear that while the pharmakos is doomed, all those who stand with the

community are safe and pure. As Bush put it: "He who is not with us is

against us." In moments of crisis and anxiety, people often feel compelled

to draw lines in the sand. The wall between the state of Israel and the

Palestinian territories on the West Bank is just such a line. As well as

being a security fence, it also represents a psychic barrier. The danger is

that people come to think that those on the "other side" are irredeemably

evil and inhuman.


For the whole thing:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1273265,00.html >>