Scapegoating.

I thought it was pretty interesting that Le Guin mentioned William James in the essay.  If I am thinking of the same William James (and I believe I am), than he is the very same William James who as a famous psychology teacher.  And in teaching psychology, he undoubtedly came across the Scapegoat theory, which is what Le Guin mentions as part of her ideas for the essay she wrote.  I always think it is so interesting when my classes overlap like this, it really makes me feel that I am learning new things.  The scapegoat theory, according to psychology, is when one group, the "in-group", blames all the bad happenings on another group, the "out-group".  The "in-group" is often the majority, with the "out-group" as the minority.  This is a lot more common than you'd think.  The most famous example would be the Holocaust in my opinion.  The holocaust is when the Germans used the Jewish people as scapegoats for the problems their country was having.  Although that is a pretty extreme example, facillitated by the leadership of the insane and very charismatic Adolf Hitler.  We as humans are actually a group that tends to scapegoat and stereotype.  We almost always identify with our group, which is our "in-group".  That leaves everyone else in the "out-group" and we are almost always stereotyped against them, making them easy targets when things go wrong.  I think that brings up another comparison between our world and Omelas.