Fear Factory-Scapegoat

He has not confessed
He has made no statement
Charges of murder
Have been accepted against him

Judges have decimated
Meanings of our laws
Already guilty?
Something has a flaw

Wrongly accused
Blindly confused
Open your eyes
Try to realize

Don't you know
You can't see
Too damn blind
To judge me!

Wrongly accused
Blindly confused
Open your eyes
Try to realize

Don't you know
You can't see
Too damn blind
To judge me!

Laws are meant to follow
But they've misled you
Conceal their meaning
So they can suit you
Misjudged by the system
No one every knows
Adding injury to insult
No one ever knows
No one
No one knows
No one
No one
No one knows...

Judges have decimated
Meanings of our laws
Already guilty?
Something has a flaw

Wrongly accused
Blindly confused
Open your eyes
Wake up, realize!

Scapegoat
Scapegoat
Scapegoat
Scape, goat
Scape, goat

How much government intervention are you okay with?  What's your line?  Has it already been drawn?

We had this discussion in class today comparing 1984 to modern America.  Though citizens value their free speech and numerous other rights, how much freedom do they actually have?  How do they know they aren't being watched right now through their cell phones or their computers?

For me, I'm okay with government screening everyone in airports and other public transportation.  However, they should not screen every conversation and household to protect citizens because it violates basic rights.  Even if family members were killed and the government desperately wants to capture the criminals, I would not support this notion.  

Before the Holocaust, Germany was starving from World War I.  Hitler hoped to keep the German citizens safe, and put his anger on a tangible scapegoat: the Jews.  The Germans couldn't blame human nature, as there would be no way to fix the situation.  Prejudice may also express anger:  when things go wrong, finding someone to blame can provide a target for one's anger.  In the late 1600s, New England settlers, after suffering devastating losses at the hands of Native Americans and their French allies, lashed out by hanging people as witches.  Following 9/11, some outraged people lashed out at innocent Arab-Americans. Philip Zimbardo once said "Fear and anger create aggression, and aggression against citizens of different ethnicity or race creates racism and, in turn, new forms of terrorism" (my psychology class was fortunate enough to hear his speech at Chapman University about heroism).