The author, a London journalist, found, it seems, all examples of unfair accusations known to history and, summarizing the material, carefully analyzed the mechanisms by which scapegoats are chosen.
The Savior and Satan were in the same company, it seems, for the first time in history — the author, a London-based journalist, believes that both of them were victims of unfair accusations. Along with biblical characters, witches, secret agents, doctors, women, Jews (how else?) and “patients zero” appear in the same row — those first victims of epidemics, who are later considered to be their culprits. Charlie Campbell has studied and described, it seems, all the possible manifestations of this «fundamental property of human nature» — to look for (and find) someone on whom you can shift the blame for a bad harvest, a storm, your own mistakes or even crimes. He examines in detail the signs by which the victim is chosen, and social ways to manipulate guilt and aggression: “Note that in a normal managerial hierarchy, guilt moves up — that is, the boss takes the blame for the mistakes of subordinates. In a corrupt hierarchy, it’s the other way around: the blame is shoved down, shifting it onto the shoulders of the most insignificant members.”
Book club 36,6, 224 p.