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René Girard: Contagion and Scapegoat

René Girard: Contagion and Scapegoat

Update: 2021-09-171
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Humans respond to plagues and social disorder with collective murder. Since antiquity, communities have chosen victims who are marginal or different. The perpetrators truly believe that the victim is guilty - a belief confirmed when the murder restores order.

René Girard argues that such murders are the foundation of social stability in cultures around the world, but that actual historical violence has been disguised as myth. He argues too that out of control mimetic contagion - rivalry arising from desire - is the reason for disorder in the first place.

These two contagions - disease and out-of-control rivalry - coincide in times of plague or pandemic. They are reinforced by empathy, by a belief in our own virtue, and by technologies that encourage imitation. The situation we are in now, with the COVID-19 pandemic and social media, is likely to lead to scapegoating of innocent victims. But we, like the ancients, will believe that we are bringing justice to the guilty.

Draws on René Girard's books, I See Satan Fall Like Lighting, The Scapegoat, and Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World.

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René Girard: Contagion and Scapegoat

René Girard: Contagion and Scapegoat

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