Re: Disputing Girard's Vision of the Apocalypse -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 14:18:17 02/24/08 Sun
Author: Hwaet!
Subject: Re: Disputing Girard's Vision of the Apocalypse
In reply to: Hwaet! 's message, "Disputing Girard's Vision of the Apocalypse" on 02:11:55 02/17/08 Sun

I have trouble regarding Jesus� prophecies of end-times turmoil, such as Luke 17:26-30 and Matthew 24:6-7, those Girard quotes in Things Hidden Bk2, Ch2, p.186, as explicit prophecies of the breakdown of the scapegoat mechanism. My difficulty comes from my disbelief that even a modern, enlightened, conscious society will fail to reintroduce this mechanism after a brief period of heightened violence (as posted above).

No doubt, it is likely that the prophesied �wars and rumors of wars,� the nation-against-nation fighting, and violence comparable to that of the days of Noah will come about through mimetic contagion and no scapegoat to restore peace.

But I contend that the failure of �enlightened� society to produce a scapegoat will not be due to its consciousness of the mechanism. (For, as I posted earlier, I do not think an �enlightened� society can be conscious of the mechanism very long before it again becomes �unenlightened,� by reintroducing the mechanism. In my view, the difference between a conscious society falling into chaos and a primitive society restoring peace could be a matter of minutes.)

Rather, enlightened society�s failure to produce a scapegoat will follow for the same reason that primitive, unenlightened societies sometimes fail to find a scapegoat: no X-with-tail presents itself. Society falling because of its inability to locate X-with-tail is different from society falling because it has grown conscious of the mechanism. Given the inevitable reintroduction of the mechanism, perhaps the doomsday scene Jesus describes will be mimetic contagion, but it will follow from too much sameness (all X�s, no tails) rather than consciousness of the victim�s arbitrariness.

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Re: Disputing Girard's Vision of the Apocalypse -- Kiernan, 07:28:07 02/27/08 Wed