She Threw Her Scapegoat Under the Bus!! -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 15:01:36 04/23/08 Wed
Author: Janelle
Subject: She Threw Her Scapegoat Under the Bus!!

I was listening to NPR the other day and I heard this commentary and thought it was very interesting. In it linguist Geoff Nunberg examines the phrase "thrown onder the bus" which has been used by many journalists, politicians, and candidates throughout this election process. Nunberg addresses who all the candidates have been accused of "throwing under the bus" and he also comments on the terminology that has been used over the years to describe such situations. In fact he lists several English phrases that have gone by the wayside in favor of this newer phrase, among them being "sacrificial lamb" and "scapegoat", two of our favorites. :) I just thought it was interesting to hear him remark about how the language changes over the years in accordance to the times, yet the meaning doesn't. Just as, I believe, Betsy showed concern over the fact that our society is the only one, as Girard points out, to have a word to descibe the spontaneous collective act of violence, "lynching", I think it is very interesting, and perhaps worrying, that our culture should have so many phrases for this concept of the scapegoat. Here is a link to the commentary, it's only about 5 minutes long.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89834261

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