Once described as the “Darwin of the Social Sciences”, Rene Girard died on November 4th this year. When I was introduced to Girard’s thought in 2005, it made some sense to me about what I saw as our human condition of resorting to destructive violence. The invasion of Iraq and then Afghanistan as responses to the destruction of the New York twin towers appalled me. The Howard Government’s response to the “Children Overboard” affair and the resultant scapegoating of asylum seekers coming in boats left me in disbelief that Australians could be so hard-hearted.
For a long time I had been drawn to the idea and practice of non-violence. Girard’s proposals about human behaviour further led me along this path and helped me to better see the non-violent Jesus.
Girard had three key insights. His theory of Mimetic Desire says that humans have evolved to desire the desire of the other which leads to conflict. A simple example is a child with a toy who ignores the toy until another child comes along and starts playing with it which leads to the first child then wanting it too, so a fight breaks out. He explained Scapegoating. In social groups (small like families or large like nations) closeness leads to rivalry. Situations of mimetic rivalry can quickly lead to a scapegoat being blamed for the problems (usually someone a bit different such as a witch or an asylum seeker). This escalates into group violence and murder. He also explained the beginnings of Religion as the means of keeping the violence at bay through the sacrifice of the victim and the associated rituals, taboos and myths. The victim became the means of keeping the peace after the founding violence and murder. Girard’s anthropological “discovery” was in the bible where he saw the movement away from sacrifice. Jesus Christ, by becoming the innocent victim revealed this mechanism. The risen Christ enables us to recognise the victims, if we have the eyes to see.
The message is that our propensity for rivalry leading to conflict means we have choices. We can choose role models who lead us into life-generating peace, not violence and death. Jesus is the ultimate role model, The Way. He totally rejected violence as a response to conflict, even to his death. He showed us how to respond: “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” (Luke: 6:27). Now that is a challenge for today!
I was forever changed by the thinking of Rene Girard. Read a good tribute to him by Scott Cowdell in this article: 'Darwin of the Human Sciences': Rene Girard, a Theological Retrospective
Article by Anne Lanyon, Co-ordinator of Columban Mission Institute's Centre for Peace Ecology and Justice (PEJ).
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