Pathfinder-Scapegoats

I am currently reading Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card. The book is about a boy named Rigg who has the ability to see all the paths people having taken. Anywhere he is, he can see the path of any living thing that has ever walked anywhere around him. This skill is particularly useful to him when he is crossing a dangerous river. He can see all the attempts to cross the river and which resulted in the fewest number people falling into the river. A little boy tries to go across a path that Rigg knows is incredibly dangerous. When the boy falls in, Rigg tries to save him. The boy’s older brother, Umbo, is watching and misinterprets what happens. He believes that Rigg killed his little brother. Umbo rushes back to the town and tells everyone that Rigg is a murderer. A mob assembles to hunt Rigg down. Even after Rigg has explained what really happened and Umbo says he was wrong, the mob still wants to find an excuse to kill Rigg. Something terrible has happened and they just want someone to blame, guilty or not.

            This is something that happens all the time. Bad things happen and people want a scapegoat. They don’t want to blame themselves or just bad luck, because they are angry, and you can’t punch bad luck in the face. Recently there was a shooting in Arizona. Six people were killed and thirteen were injured. The target was congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and it was suspected to be politically motivated. As soon as this happened, the right wing media started blaming the left; the left wing media started blaming the right. Everyone wanted to pin it on someone other then themselves.  This is something that we cannot do. Rather then arguing over whose fault this shooting was, we should be taking precaution to stop this from happening again. In Pathfinder, rather then trying to kill Rigg, they should be trying to make sure that kids don’t play near that river. If people don’t just blame each other then they could actually get around to solving the problems at hand. Creating a scapegoat may make you feel better, but it won’t solve your problems.