Wayne Northey responds to Ken Dryden's Washington Post opinion piece, "'The Code' of the NHL, and it has no cure for stupid."
Wayne Northey: This of course is the story of humanity. We endlessly imitate the violence of the opponent, escalating it into something often far more monstrous, brutal, deadly . . .
As Ken Dryden indicates, a superb goaltender, gentlemanly player, NHL Hall of Famer, trained lawyer, Member of Parliament, author, motivational speaker . . . and dead-on in his analysis that boils down to: It’s ‘The Code’, Stupid!
The outstanding anthropological work on this was by French literary scholar and philosopher, René Girard. It is impossible to comment on Girard adequately and briefly at the same time. The following though is a teaser.
Girard understands the birth of all cultures, including Christendom and Christian culture, to arise from the unanimity achieved by scapegoating a victim or victims. ritual, prohibition, and myth dominant in all cultures religious and secular arise in the repeated exercise of a sacrificial mechanism designed to re-establish the peace. Cultic rites the world over in archaic religions and scapegoating interpretations of Christianity demonstrate the phenomenon; the Criminal Justice System (CJS) in a secular society serves a similar “scapegoating mechanism” function.
A classic treatment of the CJS in this respect is by Canadian Girardian scholar, and friend, Vern Redekop: Scapegoats, the Bible, and Criminal Justice: Interacting with René Girard.
So Mr. Dryden is right–indeed more right than he knows. But when in the article he states,
And mostly it works. But when it doesn’t, cops and judges intervene.–
he, a lawyer, doesn’t get it. For, just as in William Golding’s classic 1973 novel Lord of the Flies, what comes to the rescue of schoolboys during World War II stranded on a spectacular coral island after a plane crash–when some of the boys descend into unmitigated scapegoating savagery–is a British naval gunboat–that is, representation of an epitome of more savagery . . . We read:
He saw white drill, epaulettes, a revolver, a row of gilt buttons down the front of a uniform. A naval officer stood on the sand, looking down at Ralph in wary astonishment. On the beach behind him was a cutter, her bows hauled up and held by two ratings. In the stern-sheets another rating held a sub-machine gun. The ululation faltered and died away. The officer looked at Ralph doubtfully for a moment, then took his hand away from the butt of the revolver. (pp. 181-182)
The surreal irony of the rescue of the remaining terrorized school children is caught here:
The officer grinned cheerfully at Ralph. ‘We saw your smoke. What have you been doing? Having a war or something?’ (p. 182)
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