I believe that in intense conflict, far from becoming sharper, differences melt away.
Rene GirardRead
What I call a mimetic crisis is a situation of conflict so intense that on both sides people act the same way and talk the same way even though, or because, they are more and more hostile to each other.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A mimetic crisis refers to intense conflict where opposing sides mirror each other's behaviors and speech despite growing animosity.
Rene Girard's concept of a mimetic crisis highlights an intriguing aspect of human conflict: when two opposing groups become increasingly hostile toward each other, they often start to imitate each other’s actions and rhetoric. This imitation can exacerbate tensions, creating a cycle of hostility that becomes difficult to resolve, as both sides lose their individuality and become locked in a destructive pattern of behavior fueled by rivalry and resentment.
Themes
ConflictMimeticCrisisHostilityImitation
In practice
Example use cases
Discussing the nature of political polarization in a debate.
More from Rene Girard
All quotes →We don't even know what our desire is. We ask other people to tell us our desires. We would like our desires to come from our deepest selves, our personal depths - but if it did, it would not be desire. Desire is always for something we feel we lack.
Rene GirardRead
The protective system of scapegoats is finally destroyed by the Crucifixion narratives as they reveal Jesus' innocence and, little by little, that of all analogous victims.
Rene GirardRead
Instead of blaming victimization on the victims, the Gospels blame it on the victimizers. What the myths systematically hide, the Bible reveals.
Rene GirardRead
Salvation lies in imitating Christ, in other words, in imitating the 'withdrawal relationship' that links him with his Father... To listen to the Father's silence is to abandon oneself to his withdrawal, to conform to it.
Rene GirardRead
It doesn't take much insight to realize that wars have been getting worse every time - worse from the point of view of the civilian, more and more destructive, more and more total.
Rene GirardRead
Similar quotes
It is better to put on the brakes sooner, for some fine day you begin to understand — to pardon everything — and then where is the charm of life, if you cannot love or hate any more?
Arthur SchnitzlerRead
State solutions are imposed from above; they are often without corrective devices, and cannot easily be reversed on the proof of failure. Their inflexibility goes hand in hand with their planned and goal-directed nature, and when they fail the efforts of the state are directed not to changing them but to changing people’s belief that they have failed.
Roger ScrutonRead
War's Legitimate Object Is More Perfect Peace.
William Tecumseh ShermanRead
We have to see that the human person needs the infinite. If God's not there, if the infinite isn't available, the human person creates its own paradises, giving the appearance of 'infinitude' that can only be a lie.
Pope Benedict XviRead
Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.
Thomas A KempisRead
The object of the Bible is not to tell how good men are, but how bad men can become good.
Dwight L. MoodyRead