In order for productive scapegoating to work, it’s important not to assign blame to something or someone too specific; if we do so, we’ll shirk our responsibilities to change our own actions.

I was waiting to read this argument since the beginning of this article. Thanks for stressing it, Nir.

Although I love the concept of drawing motivation from somehow less intuitive sources, scapegoating is not one of my favorite options.

Feeding on the idea of a force working against me weakens my belief in existence as a unified field; therefore, even if there might be apparent short term benefits brought by scapegoating, in the long run it will divert the way my brain works away from alignment with my deepest ideals.

In this sense I very much resonate with Ben Haymond’s response: I associate scapegoating with negative motivation due to the fact that it is often based on fear and anger, emotions which I want to integrate rather than blindly amplify.

However, as I said before, I do appreciate you mentioning the importance of not assigning blame to something or someone too specific. This will prevent — even if only temporarily — these charged emotions from being projected on others, and that is a fair control measure if you do choose to use their reactive power for your own productivity purposes.

I do agree with many other ideas in your article, and I must say I am very grateful for all the thoughts it has provoked for me. I will be looking forward to read more from you.