20 August 2005 - random scapegoat

When individuals commit great crimes, we put them away. When organizations do the same, whether for the best of reasons or because the left hand doesn’t know what the right mind is blanking on, the blame flops all around and can’t be pinned on any one person. Yet it’s no good to wind up the whole floppy organization and put it away, and it’s unsatisfying to merely deblunderize the official procedures. It is for these valid and important reasons of public accountability and social justice that the random scapegoat was invented, Citizen Evil. By the way, how do you like your new name? Please, protest your innocence as loudly as you can, that makes it more convincing.