Girard's thinking, including textual analysis, is a sweeping reading of human nature, human history and human destiny. His contention is controversial: Religion is not the cause of violence, as many suppose; it was, in archaic societies, a way of solving it. Here's why: People are social creatures, and their behavior is based on imitation to a much greater degree than generally supposed. How else to explain why a generation decides at once to pierce their tongues, or why stocks rise and fall? How to explain how a child learns language? Even our desires are not our own; we learn them from others. <...> Envy and resentment are the inevitable consequences of this drive toward mimesis. These emotions, in turn, fuel conflict; it occurs whenever two or more "mimetic rivals" want the same thing, which can go to only one. It might be a woman, a presidency or a research grant. Many religious prohibitions are meant to regulate and control such conflict. <...> "The first culture which rebels against that system is the Jewish culture," Girard said. He explains that the Bible is actually counter-mythical. Over a period of centuries, the books of the Old Testament begin to catch on to mankind's scapegoating mechanism. While they describe and even celebrate violence, they gradually begin to question and fight it as well. For example, many of the psalms "show a narrator who is surrounded by a crowd of good-for-nothings, who are trying to encircle him and turn him into a victim." The story of Job also is revealing: "It's a small community, but he's been the dictator for years. Everybody loves him, he does no one any harm," Girard said at the Old Union lecture. "One fine morning he wakes up, and everybody is against him. His three 'friends' are ready to explain how bad he is now. And everybody is ready to explain how bad he is at the same time. He has turned from the absolute hero to the scapegoat of the community. Job is like a long psalm and shows you what happens to communities. No myth will ever show you that."
Girard's thinking, including textual analysis, is a sweeping reading of human nature, human history and human destiny. His contention is controversial: Religion is not the cause of violence, as many suppose; it was, in archaic societies, a way of solving it.
Here's why: People are social creatures, and their behavior is based on imitation to a much greater degree than generally supposed. How else to explain why a generation decides at once to pierce their tongues, or why stocks rise and fall? How to explain how a child learns language? Even our desires are not our own; we learn them from others. <...>
Envy and resentment are the inevitable consequences of this drive toward mimesis. These emotions, in turn, fuel conflict; it occurs whenever two or more "mimetic rivals" want the same thing, which can go to only one. It might be a woman, a presidency or a research grant. Many religious prohibitions are meant to regulate and control such conflict. <...>
"The first culture which rebels against that system is the Jewish culture," Girard said. He explains that the Bible is actually counter-mythical. Over a period of centuries, the books of the Old Testament begin to catch on to mankind's scapegoating mechanism. While they describe and even celebrate violence, they gradually begin to question and fight it as well.
For example, many of the psalms "show a narrator who is surrounded by a crowd of good-for-nothings, who are trying to encircle him and turn him into a victim." The story of Job also is revealing: "It's a small community, but he's been the dictator for years. Everybody loves him, he does no one any harm," Girard said at the Old Union lecture. "One fine morning he wakes up, and everybody is against him. His three 'friends' are ready to explain how bad he is now. And everybody is ready to explain how bad he is at the same time. He has turned from the absolute hero to the scapegoat of the community. Job is like a long psalm and shows you what happens to communities. No myth will ever show you that."
Reading that last paragraph, I could not help but be reminded of China's wheelchair-riding torchbearer in Paris, Jin Jing, who went from "golden girl [who] lifts a nation" after protecting the flame from a demonstrator in the Paris torch relay, to "cultureless, brainless stupid ... traitor" (and worse) for urging Chinese people not to boycott Carrefour out of consideration for the company's Chinese employees.
Same goes for images of Wang Qianyuan/Grace Wang urging calm at a Chinese student rally at Duke University in April, as well as images of Chinese demonstrators intimidating pro-Tibet and pro-human rights demonstrators in Canberra and Seoul. ... all progress depends on the unreasonable mensch.(apologies to G.B. Shaw)
There's nothing like telling those in power exactly what they want to hear to make them feel better about themselves, apparently.
Should we all buy copies of his work and hand them out at Guantanamo? 'Look - you're not being scapegoated. It says so here.'
This won't answer your question(s), but near the end of the article:
Only a few months earlier, Girard had spoken at an informal philosophical reading group in History Corner for several dozen faculty and students. Girard recapitulated the story of the Old Testament Joseph, son of Jacob, bound and sold into slavery by his "mob" of 10 half-brothers: "They all get together and try to kill him. The Bible knows that scapegoating is a mob affair." Joseph reestablishes himself as one of the leaders of Egypt and then tearfully forgives his brothers in a dramatic reconciliation. It is, he said, a story "much more mature, spiritually, than the beginning of Genesis." The story is unlike any in archaic literature: "It's a very beautiful story, which like many biblical stories, is a counter-mythical story," he said, "because in myth, the lynchers are always satisfied with their lynching." But at the reading group, he suggested his audience might not have noticed this before. After all, they had been trained to think that the Bible was a completely backward book, superceded and preceded by better efforts, with little that was new to the world.
Girard recapitulated the story of the Old Testament Joseph, son of Jacob, bound and sold into slavery by his "mob" of 10 half-brothers: "They all get together and try to kill him. The Bible knows that scapegoating is a mob affair." Joseph reestablishes himself as one of the leaders of Egypt and then tearfully forgives his brothers in a dramatic reconciliation. It is, he said, a story "much more mature, spiritually, than the beginning of Genesis."
The story is unlike any in archaic literature: "It's a very beautiful story, which like many biblical stories, is a counter-mythical story," he said, "because in myth, the lynchers are always satisfied with their lynching."
But at the reading group, he suggested his audience might not have noticed this before. After all, they had been trained to think that the Bible was a completely backward book, superceded and preceded by better efforts, with little that was new to the world.
I don't understand how a figure based on collected and edited oral histories, whose existence has no historical basis, who talked to burning bushes and collected miraculous tablets of stone directly from the hand of god, and who organised the deaths of thousands, can be 'counter-mythical.'
That novel approach, according to Girard, is forbearance and forgiveness, girded by faith, as exemplified by Job, Jesus and Joseph (as opposed to the rancor and revenge of other traditions).
It is an interesting idea, but I wonder how it would hold up under cross-cultural scrutiny: even within an Indo-European/Semitic context. ... all progress depends on the unreasonable mensch.(apologies to G.B. Shaw)
