Scapegoat

A sheep which is definitely not a scapegoat.
(Photo: Trinity Kubassek/Pexels | Text: David/ArtisanEnglish.jp)

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Word of the Day: Scapegoat

Whatever happened to the good old days when people took responsibility for their actions?

I don’t think they ever existed.

It’s human nature to pass the buck onto the closest person and make them the scapegoat.


A scapegoat, you see, is the person we make shoulder the blame for our failings.


I’m going to refer to COVID-19 again because it’s everywhere, and it provides a good example.

Countries all over the world are making China the scapegoat for this pandemic.

Yes, perhaps they are to blame because they initially tried to hide it and, by doing so, allowed it to get out of hand.

However, we were all slow off the mark.

Heck, after the US had shut its border to all travellers from China, Japan was still welcoming tourists from China.

There should be no scapegoats this time.

We only have ourselves to blame.

It’s the same with the lack of masks, PPEs, and ventilators and the lack of a work-from-home plan B at many companies.

Especially here in Japan, the government is the scapegoat.

Even I blame Abe for everything, especially those STUPID masks.

We, the people, are to blame for not being prepared.

Any area of Japan can experience a level nine earthquake at any time.

If Tokyo were to be hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami, wearing masks at evacuation centres and working from home would be the least of our worries.

The bottom line is we in Japan and around the world were not prepared on an individual level.

We should wear this folly and not look for a scapegoat – Chinese or otherwise.


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This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 69.

The higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100, the easier the passage is to read.



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