Week 8, Post 2: Let's Blame Wayne

In Chapter 22, Burke discusses rhetoric as "redemption through victimage". According to Burke, there are two choices, mortification and victimage. Mortification is "confession of guilt and request for forgiveness" (293). Mortification is often not practiced. Burke gives examples of Bill Clinton and O.J. Simpson who found it hard to admit they were wrong. Why is it so hard for us to admit we are the cause of our own misery? Instead, we prefer to blame someone or something else. This is what Burke calls victimage. Victimage is "scapegoating; the process of naming an external enemy as the source of all personal or public ills" (293). This practice has been going on for ages. Hitler used the Jews. In the crusades it was non-Christians. In America, it's been anyone from the Middle East. Victimage is nothing new. I suppose we feel that it's just easier to blame someone else for our own problems. We don't look inward and turn a blind eye to our own faults. I liked the cartoon in the book which depicts a guy, Wayne, who has become the world's scapegoat. In essence, anyone or anything can become a scapegoat. You were late to work today? Of course it's not your fault (because you woke up late). It's the slow drivers on the freeway and the stop lights that just happened to be red when you pulled up. When a speaker uses victimage, the audience can "unite" together and fear overrides common sense. Instead of realizing what the real problem is, we would rather blame an "enemy".