The Scapegoat in American Culture: From Lee Harvey Oswald To Osama bin Laden

I just recently discovered this article and found it fascinating. An absolute must read.

JULY 30, 2011

"From the very beginning, the Powers that Be have treated the Warren Report as if it is the word of God, come down from on high, etched in stone. In the picture above, that big book almost looks like a stone tablet. Why, it might was well be Moses himself placing it in Lyndon Johnson’s awaiting hands. Later, he would tell Walter Cronkite that he never believed in the lone gunman theory." - George Bailey, "The Sum Of All Things."

"Those who lack all idea that it is possible to be wrong can learn nothing except know-how." - Gregory Bateson. (1).
These famous names - Lee Harvey Oswald, James Earl Ray, Sirhan Sirhan, Osama Bin Laden - are famous for the wrong reasons. All of them are innocent of the great crimes they were accused of committing by the United States government and the mainstream media.

Oswald and Osama never received a trial. Oswald's guilt for the murder of President John F. Kennedy was never proven in a court of law, and neither can we say that Osama bin Laden is guilty for the September 11 attacks. Both men were framed by the powerful oligarchical forces that seized the United States government from the American people.

It is a fact that a ruthless and cunning oligarchy has shaped American history for at least a century in order to advance a private agenda for a dictatorial world government. When America and the West is liberated, and real history is restored, the men listed above will be remembered by future generations as scapegoats, not assassins and terrorists.

II. The Manufacturing of a Scapegoat

From time immemorial, rulers of tribes, nations and empires have created scapegoats to deflect the evils of their political system onto a powerless individual or group, and thereby stop the people living under their harsh system from recognizing the real sources of evil in their society and correcting their problems.

The American empire is no different than any other world empire. It engages in acts of evil around the world, it commits crimes against sovereign nations, and it oppresses its own people in the name of "national security." But none of this would be possible if the rulers of the empire were not exceptionally good at one thing in particular, which is manufacturing a scapegoat to justify its acts of evil and its atrocities.

In the book, "Up from Scapegoating: Awakening Consciousness in Groups," psychiatrist and Jungian analyst Arthur D. Colman explains the psychological roots of scapegoating, writing:
The creation of a scapegoat requires a process akin to the psychological mechanisms of projection and projective identification in that it uses an other to contain aspects of oneself.

The scapegoat is created by "projecting" the darker side of group life, the darker side being the reality of evil and sin in society. For the individual, the shadow contains those elements of the psyche that are not accepted as his or her own. As individuals we attempt to project that shadow onto others. Likewise, the group finds common negative ground in the scapegoat. But the scapegoat is not identical to the shadow; the scapegoat is a collective creation, a symbolic compromise for many individuals' negative projections. One can say that the scapegoat is humanity's societal vessel for the shadow--a vessel which is, by definition, innocent of the burden it assumes.

The scapegoat is a very ancient archetype and scapegoating an ancient activity, so ancient that there are few primitive societies where evidence of the practice has not been found. (2).
The scapegoat is the embodiment of all that is evil and bad in the world, and Osama Bin Laden fits the bill perfectly. He has a dark beard, a long face, a turban, a shady background, and he speaks Arabic. But he was just a man from a rich family who had connections with the Bush family. That's all. Of course, he was not a just man or a good man. But he was not the head of an Islamic movement with dreams to take down America and Western civilization.

It is clear that Bin Laden knowingly offered himself up as the scapegoat in the American empire's world drama. He sacrificed his name, image and memory and in return the American empire guaranteed to give government contracts to his family. Also, Bin Laden knew he was going to die soon because of his kidney disease, so he decided to make the best of his situation by agreeing to the use of his image by the American empire as a world symbol for terrorism.

Author Kenneth M. Gould said in his book, "They Got The Blame: The Story of Scapegoats in History," that in ancient primitive societies "a criminal or a weakling was chosen who would soon die anyway," as a scapegoat (3). Bin Laden was both a criminal and a weak dying man, making him the perfect candidate for a scapegoat.

Gould writes that rulers often use the scapegoat mechanism to cover up their misdeeds and keep down a potential rebellion:
In any event, the history of mankind is full of tragic examples of all sorts of guilt and evils being ascribed to innocent but unpopular groups or "minorities," who, for one reason or another, seemed different from the rank and file of the community, and thus aroused suspicion, fear, or hatred. Rulers soon found it to their advantage to let these popular prejudices concentrate on the heads of such groups, until widespread persecution resulted. By such means, it was easy to distract the attention of the public from the real shortcomings of the group in power, or to cause the masses to forget their own miseries. (4).
In Washington, the rulers behind the scapegoat-industrial complex work day and night to manufacture new scapegoats in order to keep the anger of the American people from being directed at them. Scapegoats like Osama Bin Laden also help generate profits for the military-industrial complex and the new terrorism-industrial complex.

The corporate/government media brainwashing machine is cunningly used as the modern version of the ancient circle of fire where the tribe huddled together around tribal leaders and priests who told them that all their anxieties, fears and problems will be taken care of if they follow their authority and do as they say.

III. Modern Scapegoats, Modern Ignorance, Modern Persecution

We like to think that we live in a civilized and advanced era because of our technological gadgets. But that is not true. Fifty years ago the world came very close to a full-blown nuclear war. And the same threat exists today. The manufactured conflict between Western civilization and Islamic civilization could easily go nuclear.

It is critical that we know the truth and understand how our brains work. How we think and what we think is a matter of human survival. If our beliefs about terrorism are not based in reality then we must change our beliefs. And that sounds easy but it is not.

Those of us who change our beliefs about the guilt of Osama Bin Laden and the reasons for the war on terrorism are denounced as "conspiracy theorists," and politically isolated. Meanwhile, the U.S. military and NATO are on a hopeless quest to hunt down terrorists in a modern re-run of the witch-hunts.

French philosopher René Girard writes in his book, "The Scapegoat," that the people who hanged innocent women because they believed they were evil witches were acting in good faith. They were convinced of their guilt, just like people today when they say "let's kill all the terrorists," and "let's drop bombs on the evil Muslims." Girard writes:
We are all able today to recognize the stereotypes of persecution. But what is now common knowledge scarcely existed in the fourteenth century. Naive persecutorsare unaware of what they are doing. Their conscience is too good to deceive their readers systematically, and they present things as they see them. They do not suspect that by writing their accounts they are arming posterity against them. This is true of the infamous "witch-hunts" of the sixteenth century. It is still true today in the backward regions of the world. (5).
What separates modern persecutors in the war on terrorists from medieval persecutors in the war on witches is the fact that modern persecutors have nuclear weapons. The obsession against "evil Islamic terrorists" could potentially lead to nuclear annihilation. Also, if the American empire continues to act like the "Great Satan," then Iran's religious leaders who are also on a stupid quest to rid evil from the world will resort to nuclear weapons.

IV. The 5 Steps of The Scapegoat Process in American Politics

1. CIA grooming of the scapegoat. This is a very important step. Oswald and Osama were both CIA agents who were groomed and trained, and told to fight against the Soviet Union. In Oswald's case he was betrayed and double-crossed by the CIA, as he was killed soon after he was charged with the murder of JFK. Bin Laden, as mentioned before, wanted to be the scapegoat. Members of the Bin Laden family were escorted out of America by the government shortly after the 9/11 attacks, no doubt a return for a great favour.

2. The execution of a violent act that is highly symbolic in nature. It could be either an assassination or a false flag attack. The goal is to cause social panic, collective fear, confusion, terror, anger, and righteous hatred in the spirit of the people.

3. The scapegoat must be identified by the government to the press and the public immediately after the violent act occurs. There can be no time for speculation, introspection, and deep thought. The masses must connect their feelings of hatred and anxiety with the designated scapegoat while they are still in a state of confusion and mental chaos.

4. The glorification and transformation of the scapegoat into a cultural symbol and world icon through the media. This image of Bin Laden is one of history's most recognized images for a reason. Images are powerful and speak volumes. The crafty neocons turned Bin Laden into the Che of Islamic terrorism.

5. Establish a cult of belief around the scapegoat. The guilt for the deed has to be psychologically glued to the scapegoat. Every other explanation for the violent act, whether it be 9/11 or whatever, must be dismissed as a crazy conspiracy theory.

V. An Empire of Myth and Betrayal

Facts and evidence are powerless against myth and scapegoating. Washington has deliberately created a culture of brainwashing and unreality, of terror and trauma, of myth and pseudo knowledge. The world is held hostage to this dumbed-down and poisoned culture.

But America's collective psyche is not resistant to truth and reality. Millions of individuals in America and other Western countries are not submitting their minds to the false beliefs and prejudices of a dumb and blind herd that is being misled by an evil and ruthless power elite in Washington and Israel.

The second part in this series of articles will be called, "The Scapegoat in American Culture: The Hidden Hand of Satan."


Notes:
1. Bateson, Gregory. 1979. "Mind and Nature." E.P. Dutton: New York. Pg. 26.
2. Colman, Arthur D. 1995. "Up from Scapegoating: Awakening Consciousness in Groups."Chiron Publications: Wilmette, Illinois. Pg. 7-8.
3. Gould, Kenneth M. 1942. "They Got The Blame: The Story of Scapegoats in History."Association Press: New York. Pg. 12.
4. Ibid. Pg. 13-14.
5. Girard, René. 1986. "The Scapegoat." The Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore. Pg. 8.
Saman Mohammadi at 12:37 AM