Jennifer Armstrong1 second ago
And this scapegoat phenomenon is also how I made sense of the writings of Georges Bataille, who said that what is really great is to take on the guilt of society. That prescription is really anti-intuitive and so hard for the academics who would critique him to understand, but as your video makes it clear it means "don't be a coward". Accept your limited humanity and your role in creating problems, and see the bigger picture. Don't just shrug it off and force others to experience the shame and humiliation that you don't want to undergo. I call this acceptance of the guilt "intellectual shamanism". It is also a very deep form of knowledge of humanity and society and the structures that create identitities. Most people don't see how much of surface reality is a consequence of what they will not face. It takes profound courage, and the ability not to black out because of pain, to see what is really going on, to correctly interpret one's role as a nominated scapegoat.
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