The Cabinet's Department of Health (DOH) recently highlighted through newspaper advertisements that "both the severe acute respiratory syndrome [SARS] epidemic and communist spies are from China." It also claimed that "SARS -- just like the Chinese spies -- is right next to you," and that "the number of SARS carriers is in fact much less than the number of Chinese spies in Taiwan." What have these statements revealed?
Viewing the overall content of the advertisements, their purpose is undoubtedly to give the public certain disease prevention information in order to prevent the epidemic from spreading and also to reduce social panic stemming from the disease. This is exactly the DOH's specialty.
Still, such remarks as the DOH's are not new to scholars studying the psychology and sociology of human violence, fear and the related scapegoat phenomenon. In studies of witch hunts in both ancient Europe and the US, many scholars note that at the time, suspicion and fear existed widely in society due to concern over plague or political and economic pressure. To account for their fears, people usually blamed the plague or other diseases on witches, as a convenient social scapegoat. During the process of searching for, identifying and executing supposed witches, social tensions were released and the community stabilized.
Why do people use spies and witches as metaphors for disease? It is because society is often portrayed as a human body and a disease represents an enemy invading a person's "body boundaries" . Therefore, when an individual or a society feels endangered, people seek to detect external threats or oppress internal minorities, such as "witches," in order to release these social tensions and thereby strengthen a community's social identity.
Therefore, social suspicion can be a disease far more terrifying than SARS. The suspicion of "fifth columnists" and the connection of internal dangers with external threats are both social indicators warning us that when a society is under pressure, it may seek release through establishing scapegoats. I'm not saying that such "witches" are all innocent or that there are no Chinese spies in Taiwan. Rather, I'm saying that people's overwrought suspicions and the tenuous connection between internal and external problems are in fact a source of more hostility and violence. Not only will such mistrust hurt many innocent people, it may even turn friends into foes -- even as scapegoats can evolve into genuine dangers.
As the Chinese philosopher Mencius (
The impact of identity on people's cognition and behavior deserves our attention. For example, in recent years, many of Taiwan's top historians have been involved in meaningless arguments over differing interpretations of our social identity. Similarly, affected by their own social identities, many of our economic and health officials are making unprofessional statements and unqualified judgments. The negative impact this can have on the performance of their professional duties is surely a loss to society. But a greater loss to Taiwan is this: germs of suspicion may have already been spread throughout the public's mind through the DOH's newspaper advertisements. Taiwan, already faced with an array of political and economic challenges, is a ripe breeding ground for such destructive germs of mistrust and apprehension.
Wang Ming-ke is a research fellow at Academia Sinica.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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