OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY. Scapegoat. (Lev. xvi) 1. Invented by
Tindale 1530.... One of the two goats that was chosen by Lot to be sent away
into the wilderness, the sins of the people having been symbolically laid upon
it, while the other was appointed to be sacrificed. 2. One who is blamed or
punished for the sins of others. 1867 Freeman, He has been made the scapegoat
for many of the sins both of other individuals and of the whole nation.
"...In mythology, a furious mob mobilizes against scapegoats held responsible
for some huge crisis. The sacrifice of the guilty victim through collective
violence ends the crisis and founds a new order ordained by the divine. Violence
and scapegoating are always present in the mythological definition of the divine
itself. .... As the Greeks thought, the shock of death of the victim brings
about a catharsis that reconciles. It extinguishes the appetite for violence.
For the Greeks, the tragic death of the hero enabled ordinary people to go back
to their peaceful lives." FROM New Perspectives Quarterly
interview. Summer 2005. "Ratzinger Is Right." René Girard
Compare
Straw man
https://fglaysher.com/bahaicensorship/straw man.htm