Discourses of Violence (Girard)

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Rimgaila Salys wrote:

> Bob, I was referring to Rene Girard's Violence and the Sacred, which
> argues that violence is an essential manifestation of the sacred, a
> way traditional societies achieve transcendence, and that this
> violence is often expressed through sacrifice. The sacrifice of
> victims/scapegoats purifies the community and, just as importantly,
> unifies it.  Think of Pavlichenko's apprehension of life, "really
> getting to know it," through trampling his master, or Lyutov's 
> sacrifice of the goose, the cossacks sitting like heathen idols,
> their invitation to Lyutov at the end and so on. But please look at
> the Girard book rather than going by my superficial summary.

I certainly don't pretend to be an expert on Girard's book or his theses 
(I haven't read them), but the views described above seem thoroughly 
misguided. In some Western societies, violence against outsiders has 
been used as a unifying force, but it has always led to the destruction 
of the warmonger and much of his society; similarly, dictators who 
repress their own people through violence achieve no purification except 
to the extent that they provoke the development of a unified opposition 
to their crimes.

Voluntary sacrifices for a cause can be a wonderful gift, but compulsory 
sacrifices are criminal acts of theft or murder. Anyone with even a 
cursory knowledge of Russian history should understand that. And anyone 
familiar with the recent history of the Roman Catholic Church will know 
that there is nothing sacred in the violence perpetrated against these 
innocent children.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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