Blaming the Aged Victim: The Politics of Scapegoating in Times of Fiscal Conservatism

The ideology and process of victim blaming have undergone profound changes as a consequence of recent sociopolitical developments. This paper examines a newer and more pernicious form of victim blaming, with particular attention to the ways it has been directed at the elderly in American society. Several contexts are presented within which we may view recent budget cuts affecting the elderly in order to analyze the scapegoating of the aged as a primary “cause” of the fiscal crisis. These contexts include the cyclical nature of social problems, which expand or contract in accordance with the dominant needs of the economy; the “fiscal crisis mentality”; the philosophy and tactics of decentralization; and the Reagan Administration's move toward an “ideological definition of reality.” Each of these contexts is seen as fitting within the overarching context of the current economic crisis and the intensified class conflict and related outcomes which it has generated. Unlike the victim blaming of the 1960s and early 70s, which defined “the elderly” as a social problem and devised solutions (e.g. expanded Social Security benefits, Medicare and Medicaid) for dealing with that problem, the victim blaming of the 1980s is seen as defining these earlier “solutions” as part of the problem. Not only are the aged problematic, but ameliorative programs are seen as “busting the federal budget” and in need of dismantling and/or shifting to other levels of government and the private sector. Education grounded in political-economic analyses of the “aging problem,” aimed in part at overcoming structurally induced divisiveness among oppressed groups, is suggested as an important deterrent to the increased polarization which the current fiscal crisis mentality has nurtured.