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The Use Of Scapegoats In Persuasion

By: Kenrick Cleveland..

Seems like for a while there nearly every car in the U.S. had a "United We Stand" bumper sticker. These stickers imply that our standing united was our only salvation. When we don't stand united, what happens? Of course, we fall divided.

So is this true? If we were to buy into the idea at the center of the political platform of defeating terrorists by standing united and spreading our democracy everywhere, will this bumper sticker's admonition keep us safe? If we blindly agree with all the presuppositions will we all be okay?

Scapegoating works best when we have a common enemy. As it relates to 'United We Stand', think Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. Having something to fight against, unites people.

Satan has been used as the scapegoat in Christianity. Communists were used in the 1950's as political scapegoats. Scooter Libby was a more recent scapegoat. (Though I actually heard pundits describe him as a fall guy and explicitly not a scapegoat, because scapegoats are implicitly innocent where as a fall guy's seem to share the blame).

Scapegoating was super popular in Massachusetts during the Salem Witch Trials. The division of church and state was causing difficulty in the lives of the citizens, so instead of addressing that, women were burned at the stake because, after all, these witches were the cause of all the problems.

In religion Adam blamed Eve who blamed the serpent for tantalizing her with the apple. Baptists blame the Mormons who blame the Baptists for leading people astray. Christians have an all purpose scapegoat responsible for all manner of sin and degradation, misery and war. . .Satan. The concept of Satan has single-handedly maintained Christianity throughout the years.

Again, I'm not debating the existence of Satan or pushing my religious or political beliefs, I am simply showing how this strategy is used.

Politically we see scapegoating divert attention from the real news of the day to lesser problems.

A national phenomenon of scapegoating occurred in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The media fueled it with its new label: the blame game. Instead of agreeing that there was a failure on all levels of government in an untenable situation of an impoverished city, geographically and economically handicapped, the blaming began in full force.

People ultimately want to believe that their problems or failures are the result of something outside themselves.

Scapegoating can be used in business or sales to suggest your client's former agent or adviser lacked the knowledge required to get you in the right house, or get you earning as much as you should have earned.

To use this tactic ethically, try making the scapegoat an opposing force and not a person or group. Use an idea, philosophy or an unfortunate circumstance as the scapegoat.

Article Source: http://www.gcyarticles.com

Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of wealthy clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion techniques.

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