It's worth mentioning that Girard worked as an anthropologist and philosopher, but in his later work primarily as a Christian theologian. When Dr. King said "t

It's worth mentioning that Girard worked as an anthropologist and philosopher, but in his later work primarily as a Christian theologian. When Dr. King said "the arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice" he describes Girard's understanding of the process of developing civilization by rejecting mimetic violence. Can demonizing and sacrificing a scapegoat somehow short-circuit our human need to use mimetic violence against each other and restore harmony? For example, can ending Kevin Spacey's career because of his history of mistreating female co-workers somehow make our culture better? Girard declares "no!" At least not for very long. Could crucifying Jesus of Nazareth somehow short-circuit the fury of the Jewish population under the thumbs of the Romans and restore harmony? The Romans and the Jewish temple bigshots hoped it would. Still, Girard declares "no!" (I'm not equating Jesus with Spacey in any way other than pointing out they're both scapegoats.) The point of understanding mimetic desire and mimetic violence, according to Girard, is to get past it: to understand it as part of human nature, and make it our nature to resist it. Unfortunately, Facebook is, explicitly, founded on the idea of focusing and exploiting mimetic desire. That's why Thiel invested. That's why it's going to be very difficult for Facebook to carry out any meaningful change.