Violence Originating from Sameness (????) -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 20:28:51 03/02/08 Sun
Author: JPJ II
Subject: Violence Originating from Sameness (????)

Girard defines desire on p287 of Things Hidden as a process of mimesis leading to undifferentiation. Mimetic desire, as we all know by now, leads to a drive towards sameness between two individuals, the model and the imitator (subject). This of course breeds hostility as the model pushes the subject away.

On the communal level, the breakdown of social boundaries and barriers leads to communal violence and the "all against all" of acquisitive mimesis; however, I'm not sure if I quite understand WHY sameness is equated with violence.

Option 1, Violence as Contagion:
As culture breaks down around them, members of a society fear the loss of their world and attempt to put down the chaos of undifferentiation by any means necessary, and because this is all very spontaneous and time has been accelerated by the contagion, they try putting down violence with violence. In advanced stages of chaos, time's speeding up of transactions between people results in more violence as reciprocity occurs without deliberation. This gives us the violence that nearly destroys the community.

Option 2, A massing of Interdividual Violence:
As two individuals locked in a cycle of interdividual mimesis approach sameness at a dizzying rate, each simultaneously attempts to differentiate himself from the other. The instantaneous attempt creates more sameness, which creates a feedback loop between sameness and the level of intensity that each tries to distinguish himself from the other. The amount of time between reciprocation shortens until it approaches Zero, at which point the sameness existing between model and subject is infinitely high while the attempts to differentiate and the reciprocity spurred by those attempts are also infinitely hight. This, of course, leaves violence as the only outcome.

Are either of these correct? Neither? Both?

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Replies:

Re: Violence Originating from Sameness (????) -- Erin Risch, 06:10:29 03/03/08 Mon