The purpose of this essay series is to illuminate a path toward the transcendence of the ancient pattern that Rene Girard called sacrificial violence,

A Temple of this Earth

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2022-01-14 16:00:11

The purpose of this essay series is to illuminate a path toward the transcendence of the ancient pattern that Rene Girard called sacrificial violence, in which society discharges its rage, its anxiety, and its rivalries upon a dehumanized victim class. This latent force swells in times of social stress as in an economic crisis, famine, plague, or political upheaval. Then elite powers can hijack it toward fascistic ends.

In Part 3 of this series, I looked at the stigmatization and ostracism of the unvaccinated as a conspicuous current example of mob dynamics in action. Yet mob dynamics far transcend the vaccine issue, and in fact operate among vaccine dissidents as well, whose thought patterns sometimes mirror those of the orthodoxy: We are the good guys, they are the bad guys. We are rational, they are irrational. We are conscious, they are asleep. We are ethical, they are corrupt. Neither this nor any dissident movement is exempt from the systemic poison of incivility that now pervades the body politic.

Self-righteousness, ridicule, name-calling, and contempt are necessary precedents to Girardian scapegoating. They are also powerful rhetorical and psychological tools to create solidarity among the troops. They imply: deviate from our beliefs and we will ridicule you too. Humans know as if instinctively the danger that follows ridicule and ritual humiliation by the group. It’s an ancient pattern. First the crowd jeers and mocks the victim, then smears her with shit. She is made contemptible, disgusting. Then the stones fly.