Nature Quote by Gilles Deleuze
““The rite, the becoming-animal of the scapegoat clearly illustrates this: a first expiatory animal is sacrificed, but a second is driven away, sent out into the desert wilderness. In the signifying regime, the scapegoat represents a new form of increasing entropy in the system of signs: it is charged with everything that was "bad" in a given period, that is, everything that resisted signifying signs, everything that eluded the referral from sign to sign through the different circles; it also assumes everything that was unable to recharge the signifier as its center and carries off everything that spills beyond the outermost circle.””
About This Quote
Source Book: A Thousand Plateaus by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, 1980
The scapegoat ritual expels disorder, symbolizing how societies discard what cannot be integrated into meaning systems.
In simple terms: Societies push out what they cannot understand.
Key Takeaway
Recognize and address systemic disorder.
Themes
sociology
ritual
entropy
Mood
critical
analytical
Type
theoretical
critical
When to use this quote
- cultural analysis
- political critique
- social engineering
Key Concepts
systems theory
signification
psychology
Questions to Reflect On
- What is the modern scapegoat?
- How can societies integrate disorder?
A Different Perspective
Over‑simplification may ignore underlying causes.
![“[Materialism] seeks the primary and most simple state of matter, and then tries to develop all the others from it; ascending from mere mechanism, to chemism, to polarity, to the vegetable and to the animal kingdom. And if we suppose this to have been done, the last link in the chain would be…” quote by Arthur Schopenhauer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/88c/arthur-schopenhauer-226_animal-kingdom_materialism-seeks-the-primary-and-most-s_50402.jpg)
![“Either it is the fold of the infinite, or the constant folds [replis] of finitude which curve the outside and constitute the inside.” quote by Gilles Deleuze](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/bd3/gilles-deleuze-3530_constant_either-it-is-the-fold-of-the-infinite-or_97990.jpg)
