We see the reality that unanimity has to be manufactured. We see the agreement on a cover story that removes all responsibility for the act of violence (it was a natural event, an "act of God").Joseph is the cause of the problem (in the brothers' eyes), but the scriptural account makes it clear that his primary crime was to be an occasion for resentment. With Abel and Joseph, Genesis begins a long trail of biblical texts we might call the true lives of scapegoats.
