I believe that in intense conflict, far from becoming sharper, differences melt away.
Rene GirardRead
Having a scapegoat means not knowing that we have one.
Interpretation
A scapegoat obscures the truth of our own actions and responsibilities.
Rene Girard's quote suggests that identifying a scapegoat allows individuals or societies to avoid acknowledging their own faults and failures. This practice of blaming others can lead to a lack of self-awareness and prevent meaningful reflection on our own role in conflicts or issues.
In practice
In a discussion about workplace dynamics, one might use the quote to emphasize the importance of personal accountability rather than blaming others.
I believe that in intense conflict, far from becoming sharper, differences melt away.
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.
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.
Instead of blaming victimization on the victims, the Gospels blame it on the victimizers. What the myths systematically hide, the Bible reveals.
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.
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.
I sometimes think that the price of liberty is not so much eternal vigilance as eternal dirt.
God, Most High, is the very one who Himself affirms His unity by the tongue of whatever of His creatures He wishes. If He Himself affirms His unity by my tongue, it is He and His affair. Otherwise, brother, I have nothing to do with affirming God's Unity.
The universal and lasting establishment of peace constitutes not merely a part, but the whole final purpose and end of the science of right as viewed within the limits of reason.
I don't think you ever understand your life - not till it's finished and probably not then either. The more I live the less I seem to understand.
They looked as if nothing had ever touched them--all well-mothered, protected, with a soft sheen of contentment. None of them had ever been in jail, or worked hard with their hands, or even gotten a traffic ticket. Skimmed-milk jollies, the whole bunch.
There is a spiritual hunger in the world today - and it cannot be satisfied by better cars on longer credit terms.
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