Profane
Rene Girard believed that at the heart of all human culture was the distinction between the profane and the sacred. Generally, these terms describe the two different kinds of violence that result from mimetic desire. Profane violence is arbitrary, disordered, and chaotic. On the contrary, sacred violence, such as sacrifices, rituals, and religion, attempt to stem profane violence from spreading. Sacred violence shapes and orders profane violence by establishing a founding myth and related rituals, thereby minimizing the adverse effects.
State of Chaos
Girardian chaos is the state of a society in which mimetic desire has created rivalries and tension that have disrupted the social fabric to the point of breaking. Societies in a state of chaos look for something to bring order, and that something is often the scapegoating mechanism. Humans always seek to bring order out of chaos, yet Girard’s theory posits that it is by their own mimetic desires leading to rivalries that create the chaos in the first place. The scapegoating mechanism works, in part, because people never attribute the cause of the chaos to themselves but rather to some entity in the group or outside of the group that they can pin the blame on. This allows them to avoid dealing with the problems of desire that are internal.
Mimetic Crisis
When mimetic desire has spread through a community (always in Freshmanistan) leading to tension and rivalries that change rapidly and lack a clear direction, resulting in chaos that threatens to tear the community apart socially. A mimetic crisis is the part of mimetic theory that most closely dialogues with the crowd (or mob) psychology branch of social psychology, proposing that the essential feature of a crowd in a mimetic crisis is the elimination of difference (mobs tend toward sameness) due to the mimetic nature of desire. The crisis of sameness that ensues leads the mob to notice and amplify differences to the maximum degree which, if not diffused, activates the scapegoat mechanism.
Scapegoat Mechanism
According to Girard, the process by which humans have historically saved themselves from mimetic crises by immolating or expelling a scapegoat. The first time the scapegoat mechanism is employed, it happens mimetically and spontaneously. After that, it is reenacted in ritual fashion in a way that recreates and resolves the original crisis. Bullfighting is one of many examples of a highly elaborate social ritual which re-creates danger and then sacrifices something to put an end to the danger. By participating in the spectacle, each person watching in the bullfighting arena has some of the feelings of danger mimetically transmitted to them and then relieved in the ritual killing, approximating what happens to a community in a mimetic crisis.
Mimetic Rivalry
Second-stage mimesis in which mimetic desire has progressed to unhealthy rivalry—someone takes a model from within their own world or social sphere (I call this world “Freshmanistan”) and covertly competes with them for the same objects of desire, often through negative imitation.
Obituary Tribute to René Girard – Stanford News Service
Cynthia Haven, author of Evolution of Desire, a biography of René Girard, begins this obituary tribute after the 2005 death of the founder of mimetic theory with these words: “René Girard was one of the leading thinkers of our era – a provocative sage who bypassed prevailing orthodoxies and “isms” to offer a bold, sweeping vision of human nature, human history and human destiny.” It begins a beautifully written ode to one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century. By the time Girard died at his home in Stanford on Nov. 4, 2005–just a short time before the terrorist attacks in Paris—he had been inducted as one of 40 immortals into the Académie Française and dubbed by his colleague Michael Serres, a fellow inductee, the “new Darwin of the social sciences.” Girard, always witty despite the seriousness of his thinking, remarked during his induction ceremony into the Académie how funny it was to be called an immortal when, looking around at all of the deceased former members and current elderly members, it was clear that of all the things you could say about members of the Académie, immortal should not be one of them! Click here to read Cynthia Haven’s beautiful piece: René Girard’s Obituary Tribute
René Girard’s CBC interview – David Cayley
Since the beginning of time, humanity has been in constant conflict due to the mimetic nature of desire. In this televised interview, IDEAS producer David Cayley speaks with René Girard about the historical and biblical aspects of mimetic theory, scapegoating, and violence, from Cain and Abel through examples from contemporary literature. With the revelation of mimetic desire and its consequences, Girard hopes to protect humanity from the escalation of violence that is inevitable if the mimetic conflict is not recognized and ultimately renounced. Watch David Cayley’s incredible Interview with René Girard
Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary – Paul Nuechterlein
Paul Nuechterlein, a well-known theologian, started Girardian Reflections with a passion for spreading a message of justice and peace. In a world filled with hostility, Nuechterlein dives into how desire can play a major roll in this continuous battle. With René Girard’s Mimetic Theory at the forefront of his analysis, Nuechterlein conducts seminars in Discipleship and Mimetic Theory to adequately train his audience on the “politics of justice.” Nuechterlein states that this website is his way of giving an “anthropological perspective” into human violence and how Christians should respond. Nuechterlein encourages his readers to look at Sunday scripture with this perspective to fully understand it not only in a theological sense but also in an anthropological one. Visit Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary
Reading of Cervantes’ Don Quixote – González Echevarría
An interpretation of the great novel Don Quixote through the lens of René Girard’s mimetic theory. In mimetic theory, human love is always mediated by a third person who also works as a motivator. In the section of the famous novel that Echevarria interprets, Don Quixote interrupts a “reading” of stories by young people that was going to culminate in marriage. The interruption of the reading allows the court-like scene of reconciliations among the various couples and all restitutions which were made, as a reaffirmation of new social forms. Cervantes’ point is that mental life is made up of levels that mirror and distort each other. Watch the professor’s interpretation of Cervantes’ Don Quixote
The Last Superstition – Roberto Calasso
What is the last superstition in human culture? Author, editor, literary critic, and man of letters Roberto Calasso muses….“man has a surplus of energy which he has to dispose of. That surplus is simply life. There is no life without a surplus. Whatever one does with that surplus, that decides the shape of a culture, of life, of a mind. There were certain cultures that decided they had to offer it in some way. It is not clear to whom, why, and how, but that was the idea. There are other cultures, like ours, where all this is considered entirely useless and obsolete. In the secular world, sacrifice shouldn’t have any meaning at all. At the same time, you realize that it does, because the word has remained very much in use. In discussions of the economy, analysts speak all the time of sacrifices, without realizing what is inside the word. Even in psychological terms, sacrifice is the most usual word. It is considered illegal—for instance, if one celebrated a sacrificial ritual in the middle of London or New York, he would do something illegal, he would be put in jail. Sacrifice is connected to destruction—that is an important thing and the most mysterious one. Why, in order to offer something, you must destroy it. Watch The Last Superstition