"Scapegoating worked in practice while it still had religious powers behind it. You loaded the sins of the city on to the goatâ€™s back and drove it out, and the city was cleansed. It worked because everyone knew how to read the ritual, including the gods. Then the gods died, and all of a sudden you had to cleanse the city without divine help. Real actions were demanded instead of symbolism The censor was born, in the Roman sense. Watchfulness became the watchword: the watchfulness of all over all. Purgation was replaced by the purge."

-- J. M. Coetzee

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