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I recently read Rene Girard's "Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World". He postulates the following theory of collective violence in the world. First,

I recently read Rene Girard's "Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World". He postulates the following theory of collective violence in the world. First, people form mimetic desire - they want things before other people also want and have them. Second, this mimetic desire results in a crisis - the collective actions of virtually everyone result in bad circumstances. Finally, in order to resolve this crisis, a scapegoat must be identified and subjected to collective violence. At this point, society can return to normal. He wrote this book in 1978. I find it quite amazing how well it describes the financial crisis, and the post-crisis search for a scapegoat/villain.

arcadeparade 10y ago
Sounds similar to "the theory of the leisure class".
- yummyfajitas 10y ago
  Based on the wikipedia summary, Girard's mimesis seems similar to Veblen's conspicuous consumption. But Girard generally doesn't go too much into the economic details of any specific era - he is more focused on traditional religion. I may need to read Veblen. I'd also be curious to see a modern update of it - Veblen's theory of a leisure class driving conspicuous consumption and a worker class partaking of it doesn't reflect modern reality at all (these days the poor form the leisure class). Yet the consumption/Girardian mimetic behavior persists.
tezza 10y ago
The scapegoat was for collecting the sins of the group onto one thing ( animal ) and casting it out of the village. Leviticus 16:9... this is where the term comes from and way predates 1978. There is another goat which is sacrificed immediately as well. http://biblehub.com/leviticus/16-10.htm http://biblehub.com/leviticus/16-10.htm
stdbrouw 10y ago
Au contraire, I find it interesting how there's a total lack of enthusiasm among the general populace to put bankers in jail. Many potential explanations: maybe a certain degree of unethical behavior has become the norm for bankers, and so we feel we can't punish people when really they're the norm? Maybe we feel like the system has to change and that punishing individual actors doesn't make sense? Maybe we don't understand the economic crisis and thus find it hard to identify culprits?

arcadeparade 10y ago

Sounds similar to "the theory of the leisure class".

yummyfajitas 10y ago
Based on the wikipedia summary, Girard's mimesis seems similar to Veblen's conspicuous consumption. But Girard generally doesn't go too much into the economic details of any specific era - he is more focused on traditional religion. I may need to read Veblen. I'd also be curious to see a modern update of it - Veblen's theory of a leisure class driving conspicuous consumption and a worker class partaking of it doesn't reflect modern reality at all (these days the poor form the leisure class). Yet the consumption/Girardian mimetic behavior persists.

tezza 10y ago

The scapegoat was for collecting the sins of the group onto one thing ( animal ) and casting it out of the village. Leviticus 16:9... this is where the term comes from and way predates 1978. There is another goat which is sacrificed immediately as well. http://biblehub.com/leviticus/16-10.htm http://biblehub.com/leviticus/16-10.htm

stdbrouw 10y ago

Au contraire, I find it interesting how there's a total lack of enthusiasm among the general populace to put bankers in jail. Many potential explanations: maybe a certain degree of unethical behavior has become the norm for bankers, and so we feel we can't punish people when really they're the norm? Maybe we feel like the system has to change and that punishing individual actors doesn't make sense? Maybe we don't understand the economic crisis and thus find it hard to identify culprits?