Scapegoat

An individual selected to bear the blame that properly belongs to a group, e.g. Jesus (the Lamb of God).

This left me wondering what the difference between Jesus and Christ is. I found something about this on the internet (oh what would we do without the internet? me? I’d probably just make things up. hmm – actually I do that anyway (oops – bang go half my devoted and loving followers (yep – that mean you))). Anyways – here’s what I found:

Jesus was born of blood and (Flesh) and was Conscious of the physical material world.
Christ was born of God (Spirit) and is Conscious of the Spiritual World.

How cool is that? Note particularly the different tenses in those two statements.

Okay – let’s get down to business. When you think about it, being a scapegoat is all about Conflict, which is one one of the seven key elements of fiction (in case you were wondering, the others are Plot, Setting, Dialogue, Point of View, Style and Character (according to a book I bought just the other day for just 50 British pence – a bargain)).

There are three types of conflict:

• Man against Man. Or more commonly – Man against Woman if my experience of life has taught me anything at all. Don’t ask me why this is so – I’m just an amateur at relationships. I still haven’t figured out why toilet-lid-down is the default position yet!
• Man versus Himself. Ah, now this I know plenty about. I’m forever fighting with myself over which side of the bed I should sleep on. And if I have one more argument with myself over about cheese slices then I swear that that guard in the supermarket is never going to let me shop there again. Ever.
• Man and Nature. Hmm, what’s this about then? It’s either about crocodile wrestling or maybe something about something like global warming. Yeah – that’s it: Ma Nature fighting back against the indignities mankind has wrought on her fair face. There’s a lot of fiction on this theme – Michael Crichton seems to do it a lot, what with dinosaurs, bugs and nanobots wreaking havoc left, right and straight down the middle.

I could probably think of a few more types of conflict actually:

• Man on God. I mean, just think about all those superhero movies. Those musclebound hulks are just proxies for God really. I mean, some of them even are even related to God, like Thor, Jesus Christ (Superstar), Krishna etc.
• Man fighting Aliens. Is there anyone else here who’s totally looking forward to seeing the next Independence Day movie? I think I’ve made my point, yes?
• Man battling Technology. Yeah, now we’re talking! Robots, sentient telephone networks, video game characters from space, rogue toasters, the revenge of the electronic cuckoo clocks, wind up toys that just won’t lay down and die, industrial assembly line robots that decide to paint all new cars neon pink, tractors that evolve into killer machines that take their hideous revenge on the young farmers who refused to change their oil all year, killer zippers bent on cutting off … And that’s quite enough of that thank you very much.

Well, I’ve quite forgotten what all this has to do with scapegoats, but that’s alright – I had an enormous amount of fun along the way. And at the end of the day, enjoying oneself truly is the most important thing going. Oh, apart from being exceedingly nice, that is.

Agree or disagree – just have fun while you’re doing it, my friend.