The machinery of human society has long possessed a dark ability to create its own tragedies, most clearly seen in the relentless formation of scapegoats. This process is at once ordinary and horrifying, embedded so deeply in human interaction that it often escapes conscious awareness.
From small villages to sprawling empires, humans have shown a remarkable tendency to project their anxieties, insecurities, and moral failings onto those marked as outsiders. What makes this especially dangerous is that it is rarely recognised for what it is: a psychological contagion, an unconscious theatre of blame in which individuals, driven by mimetic desire, find in another a vessel to release collective unrest.
René Girard’s study of this phenomenon offers only a glimpse into the deep structure of scapegoating, yet it exposes how societies manufacture crises while briefly feeling absolved of responsibility.
The mechanism of scapegoating
This dark machinery is shaped by entrenched power structures whose reach is both visible and hidden. Rulers do not simply exploit public fears; they have, over centuries, built systems that gradually weaken the capacities of citizens to resist manipulation.
Intellectual independence, the ability to question accepted truths and think for oneself, has been persistently attacked. Media, education, and official discourse have been gradually turned into instruments that dictate what is acceptable to believe, while civility shrinks under constant moral scrutiny.
In such a society, the ability to perceive reality is no longer natural; it becomes a skill that must be carefully cultivated, constantly threatened by forces that profit from confusion and misdirection.
The consequences of this manipulation are obvious to anyone who looks closely. Citizens are detained, marginalised, or socially cast out on grounds that often prove trivial, distorted, or fabricated.
Modern campaigns of vilification, even when disguised as moral outrage, operate with the precision of ritual. Accusations are not designed to deliver justice but to create the illusion of it; the actual guilt of the accused matters far less than the catharsis achieved by the public drama.
In these moments, justice ceases to be a fair arbiter of actions and becomes a stage where human cruelty is performed and sanctioned. History is filled with examples: the public trials of heretics, the purges of totalitarian states, the careful destruction of political rivals – all demonstrating how controlling narratives and manipulating psychology serve those whose authority depends on fear, obedience, and dependency.
The ways influencers manipulate collective perception are subtle, varied, and woven into everyday life. Through unrelenting propaganda – an enterprise as old as empires but now far more sophisticated thanks to modern communication – stories are continually adjusted to serve the needs of power.
The public, naturally inclined to imitate and drawn to the desires of others, is gently guided towards predetermined conclusions, often appearing to happen spontaneously. It is here that conspiratorial patterns take root: the sense of randomness is carefully engineered, making people believe events are chaotic or arbitrary when they are, in fact, meticulously plotted.
Society moves like a hidden choreography in which assumptions about cause, responsibility, and morality are quietly rewritten, and even those who believe themselves free may find that their choices have been guided by invisible currents beyond their comprehension.
Manipulating understanding itself
This erosion of independent thought reaches far beyond politics. The very ways humans understand truth are manipulated.
Desire, imitation, and social conformity create an environment where facts are flexible and knowledge depends on allegiance. To want is to want what others want; to know is to accept what the group accepts. Scapegoating is therefore not just a tool of social control; it is a mechanism that shapes understanding itself.
By focusing attention on specific individuals or groups, those in power create a space where questioning is risky, curiosity is punished, and independent thought appears dangerous. Each accusation and campaign of vilification both strengthens authority and weakens the public’s ability to think critically about the system that oppresses them.
Scapegoats are rarely chosen for reason or fairness; selection is guided by the needs of the collective psyche and the interests of the powerful. Innocence is irrelevant. A scapegoat may be guilty, but their guilt does not matter; innocence can make the effect even stronger, heightening the sense of arbitrariness and inevitability that enforces compliance.
Today, mass vilification – social media trials, smear campaigns, and rapid circulation of selected narratives – is the direct descendant of ancient mechanisms, now instant and global. Each instance exploits the human need for relief, for the resolution of anxiety, and the individuals caught in this process often see their marginalisation as natural, unavoidable, and justified.
Orchestration of perception and narrative
These dynamics are amplified by hidden actors whose influence, though largely invisible, supports the very structures that produce scapegoats.
Financial conglomerates, civil society movements, religious institutes, political organisations, and cultural networks work not as monolithic conspiracies but as diffuse systems of interest, shaping outcomes that protect their power. Their presence magnifies the reach of propaganda, secures the authority of approved narratives, and isolates or discredits those who might resist.
Citizens in this environment do not merely live in society; they inhabit a carefully engineered field of perception, where access to truth, moral judgement, and clear thinking is constantly constrained. Everyday acts of empathy, reflection, or decision-making are subtly undermined by invisible currents of influence.
This is precisely where the full horror of human cruelty is revealed. Justice is never merely about fairness; it is a performance. Knowledge is never merely learnt; it is negotiated with the desires and authority of others. Morality is never merely reflected upon; it becomes a stage where power defines the very terms of human judgement.
In this context, scapegoating appears not as an anomaly but as a structural necessity. Each victim, public humiliation, or trial – whether by media, courts, or society at large – is both a product and an instrument of a system whose order relies on the very act of blaming.
The consequences reach into the collective soul. Human civility, already fragile, is torn by imitation and fear. Intellectual independence, once the hallmark of enlightenment, becomes conditional, dependent on alignment with sanctioned narratives. The ability to act morally, empathise, and see reality clearly becomes an achievement, not a given, dependent on the individual resisting currents shaped by centuries of institutional authority.
Even in societies that consider themselves liberal, the orchestration of perception and narrative remains central to maintaining hierarchy. Citizens are never truly free; at best, they participate in this illusion where autonomy is limited by unseen forces, and justice is always shadowed by orchestrated influence.
A constant principle
To face this reality is to accept that human societies are built to produce victims, and these victims are necessary for the maintenance of order, however temporary or illusory.
Scapegoating is not a historical curiosity; it is a constant principle, from workplaces and neighbourhoods to empires and nations. Its recurrence is inevitable, shaped by psychological, cultural, and structural forces.
Those who believe they are immune are already part of the system’s power, for disengagement or disbelief only strengthens it. Awareness, vigilance, and reflection are not merely intellectual exercises; they are acts of moral survival, shields against a system that produces victims to uphold its own legitimacy.
The irony is that we witness it, we suffer it, yet we shrink from confronting it collectively. How cheaply we have bartered our conscience!
(The writer is an author based in Colombo)
(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the official position of this publication)