Exploring how media provide us with myths — age-old stories that celebrate, degrade, create and destroy societies.
In my upcoming book, I argue, sadly, that scapegoating, is why people come together and how people come together. Throughout the history of humankind, groups have defined themselves not only by who belongs but who does not belong. Inclusion is gained by exclusion. Personal identities are formed in opposition to others.
In our time, nations rely on scapegoating to draw boundaries between “us” and “them” and, now, ultimately fracture along polarized lines of grievance and blame. Our media systems feed these fractures and can be understood as “networks of hate.”
Drawing primarily on the work of Kenneth Burke and René Girard, I find that scapegoating is not a social “malfunction,” not an aberration, but the essential way human groups are formed. Publication date: October 2026.
Updates and Observations
The book on scapegoating is finished. Scapegoating itself is never finished. I update thoughts on world events and scapegoat theory on LinkedIn and have begun to offer longer observations on Substack.
How Gaza and Israel Exemplify the Scapegoat Ritual