8 Comments

A provocative post indeed.

During these turbulent times, I’ve often reflected on the Girardian insight that identifying a class of person as the foundational cause of injustice is, in a sense, to make that class into a God. If “unaccountable elites” are the reason for our downfall, then unaccountable elites are an “uncaused cause”. If whiteness is the original sin, then whites are an “uncaused cause.” When I create a scapegoat, I am by definition imbuing it with a fullness of being which I perceive to be lacking in myself, a capacity for freely-chosen action where I believe myself doomed to blind reaction.

That said, I don’t quite buy your thesis. I don’t see BLM as willing the sacrificial death of black victims, except perhaps insofar as any bureaucracy is invested in perpetuating the problem it was designed to solve. In the Girardian formula, the scapegoat becomes the focus of all the rage and anguish brought on by the mimetic crisis; the killing of the scapegoat “magically” relieves the crisis and brings about a new equilibrium. The killing of George Floyd had precisely the opposite effect. It inflamed the crisis and propelled society into a greater state of disequilibrium--a fact no BLM activist would deny.

It’s much easier to see the scapegoat mechanism in the phenomenon of statue-toppling. There we see the psychic pain brought on by the worsening mimetic crisis projected onto symbols of a now-oppressive order, and a temporary relief of that pain when the symbols are destroyed. It’s a broken and ineffective mechanism, though, since in bringing relief to one segment of society it further inflames another segment. I fear it will take a much more radical sacrifice to generate a sustainable new order.

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I’ve finally got around to putting my hand in my pocket and paying for the premium goods here. Glad I did. I have no real further insight to add, no ‘take’ of whatever temperature to offer, no reply guy urge to reword and regurgitate back to you what you just told me.

I simply wanted to let you know that this is an outstanding piece and that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Cheers.

Tom.

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