When a group of people try to manage the things
happening around them, the first step they might take is often to choose
a person as the leader or as a delegate to represent the conclusion of
their discussion or to be responsible for their decisions, and sometimes
even as a scapegoat when things go wrong.
In the story,
「The Lottery」, we can easily find this pattern. The man in charge of
the process, Mr. Summers, was obviously the leader of the yearly drawing
ceremony, and his existence guaranteed the order in the meeting. Tessie
was chosen to be the sacrifice for a harvest of the crops and the stones
that the villagers threw at her represented the responsibility they
dumped on her. The villagers were hoping for a good harvest through
sacrificing a life and this life had shouldered all the heavy
expectations of the villagers.
Just like Tessie, the bad luck scapegoat in 「The Lottery,」 Jonah in the
Bible was also subjected to the same violence.
The
sailors said to each other, 「let』s draw lots and find
out who is to blame for getting us into this
danger.」
They did so, and Jonah』s name was drawn…
And Jonah was thrown
into the sea, only to be saved by a big fish that god had sent to help
him.
In present days, we elect a president as our leader in politics, we
elect a class leader to take care of school matters, and also we pick
one of our family members as the delegate of our family business. We
generally work together but do different things. If nothing goes wrong,
everyone would live a happy life (maybe). But something bad happens to
the group, people would usually panic about who』s going to take this
responsibility. If there』s a leader, without doubt, he or she surely is
the one. If not, then probably people would start to seek a scapegoat.
The leader and the scapegoat share the same fate: they will end up being
accused badly because everyone will focus their rage and fear on them.
In my opinion, the existence of a leader or a scapegoat will strengthen
people』s dependent mentality. Of course I don』t mean that there
shouldn』t be any leadership system. Yet, if we are not aware of the
fact that people tend to evade their own responsibilities, then even our
leaders will always become scapegoats and be forced out of office.