Re: Camus Questions -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 11:02:52 03/29/08 Sat
Author: Kiernan
Subject: Re: Camus Questions
In reply to: CS Holden 's message, "Camus Questions" on 07:30:46 03/27/08 Thu

I think what you've put your finger on here is the great irony of consciousness: it can be both the salvation of mankind and its most tragic moment. Once we're conscious, we have two options. We can, as the Gospels invite us, step outside of the system into, as Girard speaks about it, the Kingdom of God where peace reigns. However, simultaneously, consciousness can rob us of the single-victim mechanism without providing us with anything to fill it. Without steping into the Kingdom of God, we *are* left in the most tragic position. We realize that we are caught in a cycle, and that realization only traps us in it further. Camus (with whom I have little experience) may be pointing toward a fallacy of the modern world - that knowledge brings freedom. In the case of the scapegoat mechanism, knowledge only leaves us more lost, more trapped in a cycle of death.

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