Date Posted:19:20:40 02/10/08 Sun Author: Jfish Subject: Re: Violating Distinctions in Christianity In reply to:
Caitlin
's message, "Re: Violating Distinctions in Christianity" on 13:23:22 02/10/08 Sun
I think you're splitting hairs here. Sameness isn't just about twins, but repeating the same customs or actions that led to violence. So anything that happens in common which also leads to violence is feared.
I think the problem isn't sameness, per se, but the human tendency to associate concurrent events. If every time you wrote "slam" your bedroom door slams, you would think that one causes the other, even if they had nothing to do with each other. I think the same is true for these cultures. They make poor associations. Their assume their crops died of drought because they angered the sun God through "substitute slight difference here." So -- and I think this is what Girard means too -- it's not the sameness that causes the violence, but the sameness makes whatever violence that erupts worse because its more arbitrary. Remember, finding a scapegoat is a way to relieve tensions that are already there.
In the context of Christianity, then, this would imply that Christians won't look for a slight cause to explain the violence. They, in fact, won't care. Rather, they'd take the side of the particular victim and assume responsibility for the violence themselves. Ultimately, there is no scapegoat because everyone accuses themselves first. This is Levinas at work here.
