Effects of Scapegoating
What happens when people won't take responsibility?
Critical Essay: Frivolous Lawsuits
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Effects of Scapegoating What happens when people won't take responsibility? Critical Essay: Frivolous Lawsuits |
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| Cause | Effect | Prevention | Bibliography |
Values, responsibilities, self-accountability: all of these traits that make up a well-rounded individual are being lost in the effects of scapegoating in today’s society. By definition, scapegoating is when a person places blame on someone or something in order to be void of the accountability for their actions or beliefs. Scapegoating seems to be an innate idea in the human mind. It seems to have been around since history began. The reason that it has become a problem is because of how much it has turned into a problematic trend by recent society. Looking at effects of scapegoating in history, it’s easy to see, in retrospect, certain events that devastated society. One prime example is the Jewish Holocaust, well-known period in history that placed massive blame on racial, religious, and ethnic groups, and it’s agreed that the effects were horrendous to society’s well-being. In the 1930’s and 1940’s, when this was happening, people such as American citizens didn’t think of the dangers involved, and even thought of Hitler’s genocide project as a positive action. The realities, we can now understand, are that Hitler was blaming these minorities for the fall of their country even though it was not their fault. Everyday Scapegoating The minor decisions that people make are based on the feedback they receive from culture and society, and these irresponsible decisions have many effects. Scapegoating doesn’t necessarily have to include large amounts of people or scandalous acts of deceit. Whenever any individual blames someone else for something, a small act of scapegoating and its effects are introduced into society. For example, when a child sees his or her parents unreasonable blame someone else, this child learns from that. This introduces another cycle of people who will learn to give up their responsibility. Scapegoating is directed toward many people today and affects almost everyone one way or another. Scapegoats can be targeted because of certain characteristics that they possess or simply by qualities that they can’t control such as their race or ethnicity. One obvious, but major effect of scapegoating is prejudice toward minority groups. This is a problem because it can lead to stereotyping, and cause biased and unfair treatment to individuals for no just reasons at all. According to the National Opinion Research Center’s data, “Communists, Alcoholics, and Atheists are examples of the most-often scapegoated group[s].” (1). Stereotyping is a direct form of scapegoating because by making negative generalizations about a group of people, you often blame them for things that are out of there personal control. Going back to the example of how Hitler blamed minorities for problems in Germany. The Jews were stereotyped as being ignorant and therefore, able to take on the blame of the majority. "Frivolous litigation has a corrosive effect on American culture..." (8) Frivolous Lawsuits Another effect of scapegoating is the frivolous lawsuits that are infesting our court system. Along with malpractice lawsuits, these lawsuits show how our society today believes that they deserve to sue anybody, and can’t take the blame for any of the actions that they make. It is also a case where people take scapegoating so far, that they misuse our government court system. These people can instead use there citizenship to vote into office good representatives and laws. They can also use forms of mediation and arbitration to come to agreements and realize a balance of responsibility. The fact is that both sides share responsibility, and one side can’t expect to leave all to the other. The focus in these lawsuits needs to be on whichever side is placing the blame wrongly on the other, which is oftentimes on the side of the litigant in these frivolous lawsuits. There are numerous examples of lawsuits that have gone through the justice system that would be considered “frivolous.” For example, a man sued his dog sitter for $160,000 because the dog was lost while he was gone. He sued for emotional damages, the cost of his collapsed business, and the cost of his search and won. In another lawsuit, a police officer accidentally shot and killed an arrested man, when all she really wanted to do was use a Taser device to restrain him. The family of the murdered man sued the city’s police force, but in return, the city sued the Taser device company expecting them to pay for the family’s lawsuit. The city thought that “’any reasonable police officer’” could accidentally draw and fire a gun and mistake it for a Taser. It is obvious to see how little responsibility the people in the examples are taking. In the first lawsuit the individual takes advantage of the way our society is run today: the man not only considers himself not responsible for anything and pushes the blame onto his dog-sitter, but he also thinks he can get away with suing for an unreasonable amount of money. In the second case, the city does not even allow the police officer to take any responsibility for her actions. They take away the blame before she even has the chance to keep it. Even though in both of these cases, the so called “victims” did lose something, they still took advantage of the system to gain more of a reward than was necessary for them. (2) Lawsuits in medical practices have become very prevalent today also. Many times, doctors have to worry about going out of business for malpractice lawsuits that are hurled their way. The Good Samaritan Law had to be enacted just to protect health care providers, because our nation stoops so low as to sue people who could possible have saved their lives. The Good Samaritan Law is a law “that protects healthcare providers and other rescuers from being sued when they are giving emergency help to a victim provided the person uses reasonable, prudent guidelines for care using the resources they have available at the time of the accident.” This law ensures that the caretakers not be sued if they use common sense in each situation to take care of the victim as best as possible. (3) There is the fact that sometimes doctors do hurt someone or operate under malpractice, but we are not advocating the negation of the option to sue. There is a line that needs to be drawn as to what is reasonable and what is trivial or frivolous. Our Country and Scapegoating The country as a whole doesn’t like to take responsibility for their actions. When something misfortunate happens to them, our nation’s citizens need someone to blame as well. This can be seen in the heading of The Express-Times, a newspaper in New Jersey. The headline and subtitle read, “Nation's Economic Woes Rarely the President's Fault: But Don't Say That to Those Who Lose Jobs.” There are countless times when country crises occur, but are not the nation’s leaders’ faults. There are so many factors that contribute to the nation’s economy and well-being to be any one person’s fault. Unfortunately, this is another circumstance where blame is taken by an undeserving party. Leaders to take responsibility as part of their job, but, once again, does it seem reasonable that the entire country’s status can be blamed on one person? (4) Close to Home Even though many of the effects of scapegoating occur throughout society, we believe that one of the most deeply rooted effects happens within the home. Everyday children are being affected by the lack of responsibility shown to them by their own parents and caregivers. This effect is the fact that new generations of kids are being taught everyday to shrug off responsibility, and accept the way of life of their scapegoating parents. Effects include everything from childhood obesity to children’s behaviors. Parents can’t even take enough responsibility to monitor their children’s weights, but instead blame it on the fast-food industry. Even more dangerous effects include the issue that parents aren’t allowing their kids to take the blame and punishments that are accompanied by misbehavior. This even goes so far as responsibility for school shootings. In a recent poll, parents receive the highest vote by a large margin for responsibility for school violence. (5) Also, when researching violence prevention in children, six out of the eight methods of violence prevention for boys dealt with family care and teaching. This shows how much these outcomes could be prevented in the home alone. (6) There are obviously a multitude of effects brought on by lack of responsibility in parents and how it affects our nation’s youth. How did parents get to be this way? One reason is the fact that discipline is not used the way it was in the past. Parents want to be friends to their children and not the disciplinary figure. Over 90% of parents today think that discipline is a lot less strict than it used to be and 70% or parents agree that kids get away with too much these days. (7) "'It's very upsetting when you're doing something for the community, not making any money for yourself, to be sued over something over which you had no control.'" -Ryan Warner, volunteer at community softball program (8) There are many effects of scapegoating in modern society. These are the
kinds of effects that can start small, but are rippling out to affect more
people and their ideals everyday that they continue. There are even side
issues such as credit card debt and welfare programs that are outcomes of
this complete lack of
responsibility and morals from the American people. Even when thinking about
the daily routine of the average American, it is easy to tell that
scapegoating is
influencing lives for the worst. To Read More: Check out how Frivolous Lawsuits are one example of scapegoating today.
REFERENCES: 1. "Definitions and Overview of Prejudice and Discrimination." 6 Jan. 2004. 11 Dec. 2004. <http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/soc/355lect01.htm>. 2. Cassingham, Randy. "The 2003 True Stella Awards Winners." 21 Jan. 2004. StellaAwards.com. 11 Dec. 2004. <http://www.stellaawards.com/2003.html>. 3. "Good Samaritan Statute: What is a Good Samaritan Statute." Nursing Legal Issues. 2004. Medi-Smart. 11 Dec. 2004. <http://www.medi-smart.com/gslaw.htm>. 4. "Nation's Economic Woes Rarely the President's Fault: But Don't Say That to Those Who Lose Jobs." The Express Times. nj.com. 11 Dec. 2004. <http://www.nj.com/elections/expresstimes/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1098608747188650.xml>. 5. Tiggre, Don Lobo. "Who is Really to Blame?" Liberty Round Table Library: Essays. 11 Dec. 2004. <http://www.libertyroundtable.org/library/essay.whotoblame.html>. 6. Garbarino, Dr. James. "Teen Boys and Violence." Family Education. 11 Dec. 2004. <http://www.familyeducation.com/article/0,1120,66-6593-0-1,00.html>. 7. Leach, Penelope, Ph.D. "How Parents Are Disciplining Today: From Spanking to Time-Outs, the Results of Child's Exclusive Survey." May 2002. Child.com. 11 Dec. 2004. <http://www.child.com/kids/behavior_discipline/discipline_survey.jsp>. 8. United States. Cong. House. 108th Congress, 2nd Session. 108-682 Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act of 2004. [introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives; 13 September 2004]. 108th Congress. Congressional Bills, GPO Access. 2 Dec. 2004. <http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/0?&&dbname=cp1088&&db_id=cp108&&r_n=hr682.108&&sel=DOC&>. Source of Graphics: http://www.uuva.org/powerline.htm Article written by Joanna Gruber. Last edited December 14, 2004.
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