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Just in case anyone happens to read this…

Doozy has moved to http://www.dhoozy.com – hope to see you there!

Doozy!

Guitar it up…!

Truth Advances, Christianity Seemingly Declines, Globalisation Caused By Jesus!?

In this post are some ideas which seem extraordinarily at odds with how most people view the world. I know that they probably don’t make much sense, I can’t say that I understand them much myself after reading about 500 pages of Girard’s work, but there’s some truth here that if I can get anyone to start exploring I’d be thrilled – even if these words seem pure ludicrousness and offensive at first! The 500 pages, whilst I can’t write a persuasive summary in one blog post, are the MOST persuasive thing I’ve ever read. Maybe you should read ‘I See Satan Fall Like Lightning’ for yourself?

Check out these (seemingly) audacious claims:

Christian truth has been making an unrelenting historical advance in our world. Paradoxically, it goes hand in hand with the apparent decline of Christianity. The more Christianity besieges our world, in the sense that it besieged Nietzsche before his collapse, the more difficult it becomes to escape it by means of innocuous painkillers and tranquilizers such as the “humanistic” compromises of our dear old positivist predecessors.

Rene Girard, i See Satan Fall Like Lightning, 174.

So the core of Christian truth is the concern for the victim. Jesus exposes the lie of rivalry and scapegoating in his death and resurrection. Now that the entire world has seen it, they can’t ignore the innocent victim. The Christian revelation is the root of this concern which now pervades all of humanity. We’ve been hoodwinked to think that ‘Christianity’ is not essentially about concern for the victim, but more about victimisation. Sure the ‘religion’ that people have built in Jesus’ name has often perpetuated oppression and victimisation, but that’s not Jesus – that’s the lie that humanity has believed. So we continue perpetuating ‘mimetic rivalry’ and ‘scapegoating’ but we just make it about who can have the most concern for the victims instead! Whilst the ‘religion’ may be in decline, the truth of the Gospel is stronger than ever, in as much as what it exposes the world can’t deny – it’s the one thing that unites the globe together.

There were those who told us not long ago that human life existed in an absolute void of meaning. True enough, the old absolutes have collapsed – humanism, rationalism, revolution, science itself. And yet even today this absolute void does not prevail. There is the concern for victims, and it is that value, for better or for worse, that dominates the total planetary culture in which we live.

Rene Girard, i See Satan Fall Like Lightning, 177.

Postmodernism tells us truth is subjective. You have truth for you, I have truth for me. That we should tolerate everyone’s views, and by ‘tolerate’ they mean make sure your own views can be tolerated by the intolerant, which isn’t tolerance at all (woooo I’m heading off on a tangent!). Yet, from the study of human cultures, Girard’s shows that the absolute truth of concern for victims is something we all share. This concern for victims has become the idea that unites people all around the globe. It’s not technology, or the economy, but the concern for the victim:

The world becoming one culture is the fruit of this concern and not the reverse. In all the areas of activity – economic, scientific, artistic, and even religious – it is the concern for victims that determines what is most important. This new stage of culture has come about due neither to scientific progress nor to the market economy nor to the “history of metaphysics”.

Rene Girard, i See Satan Fall Like Lightning, 177.

This doesn’t mean that the one world culture is fundamentally ‘Christian’, but rather has its roots in Christian thought. The Judeo-Christian idea of truth has swept the globe. This doesn’t mean that the globalised culture is inherently Christian. In fact, it just perpetuates mimetic rivalry and scapegoating under the guise of concern for the victim (same old trick, same old lie – just with a reaalllllly convincing marketing campaign!). I think (!?) I could demonstrate how it’s just the same old lie and doesn’t match the truth of Jesus, although it seemingly does, but I think I’ve said more than enough confusing stufffor one post!

Some interesting thoughts though! What do you think? Would you dare to read his work?? I think his argument is utterly convincing – but I’ve just presented some of his conclusions here to hopefully pique your interest and get you thinking. His work is long, and pretty academic, so it’s not for the feint of heart, but if anyone is interested I’d love to talk through some of this stuff!

Cougars and Swingers on Nova = Mimetic Rivalry!

This morning on Nova, Hughesie, Kate and Ed were talking about their ‘Cougar Cruise’ that they organised on Valentines Day. They had 30 ‘cougars’ (women over 28) and 30 cubs (men under 28, and presumably over 18!), who came together on a 3 hour cruise with an unlimited alcohol tab. There is a four-minute video clip up at nova.com which overviews the night, and let’s just say, there’s a lot of random kissing, sexual innuendo and intoxicated noise!

I’m not sure how the conversation started this morning, but they had a ‘Swinger’ on the line talking about how morally corrupt cougars are. They then got a ‘Cougar’ who was on the cruise on the line to talk to this ‘Swinger’ and thus began a debate about who was the most ‘classy’ and who has the most ‘self-respect’. Each tried to justify their own position and belittle the other positions to show who is morally superior.

Mimetic rivalry is one of the key concepts of Rene Girard. The foundational idea is that we desire something because our neighbour has it. Then our neighbour sees that we desire it, which reinforces the fact that what they have is valuable, and so they desire it more. Our neighbour becomes our model, we copy them because they have what we want. They also become our obstacle – they are in the way of us getting what we want, so somehow we have to overcome them. This results in escalating levels of conflict (whether verbal, subtle manipulation, physical violence, judging etc.) where we have to get rid of (scapegoat) our neighbour in order to get the object of our desire.

In the Cougar Vs. Swinger scenario, the object that both parties desire is for society to see them as ‘moral’ or ‘classy’. They perceive that society gives the tick of approval to the other, and so they copy each other – trying to defend themselves as being classy. They then become each others obstacle, they start attacking each other, trying to pull the other down (scapegoat), and this conflict, if allowed, would escalate into violence.

Now, obviously in our society we have laws that prevent if from escalating to that level, but in archaic societies this would involve more and more people getting involved, creating groups of people in conflict against other groups, which ultimately leads to violence. This escalating level of violence and escalating amount of people getting involved would lead to such a crisis and such a casualty rate that everyone needs to find someone to blame. The groups somehow pick someone, usually the weakest and most vulnerable, find them responsible for the entire crisis (a very simplistic verdict!), get rid of them (by murder or excommunication or something – called ‘scapegoating’), and then all the groups experience a ‘cathartic’ effect, the pressure cooker lid is released, and the groups can return to equilibrium (peace) because the cause of all the conflict has been dealt with. The ‘scapegoat’ is innocent of the charges laid against them, but they’re not around to defend themselves anymore. This is called the scapegoat mechanism.

In today’s context, the scapegoat doesn’t get ‘killed’, we just have the luxury of being able to look down on them from a distance and not directly associating with them (villages and societies of old didn’t have that luxury!). We scapegoat the person who gets the promotion – ‘they might have got the promotion, but at least I have a life’. We scapegoat those mothers who do things differently to us – ‘their parenting style is so wrong.’ We scapegoat the bosses – ‘they’re just greedy and evil in it for the money, whilst us hard-workers make all the money for them.’ We scapegoat the celebrities and love to see them fall – ‘did you see Britney, what an immoral ‘xyz.” Here in Australia we call it the ‘tall-poppy-syndrome’, we love cutting people down, scapegoating them, to make ourselves feel important and meaningful, better than the tall-poppys in some way.

This ‘scapegoat mechanism’ is the same evil that enabled Hitler to unite a nation and commit some of the worst atrocities the world has ever seen. Yet, it is the same mechanism that we’re caught up in day in and day out. Christians call it ‘sin’ and look to Jesus who was the only one in human history to ever not get caught up in mimetic rivalry and who willingly chose to become the scapegoat. He was the perfect innocent victim who exposed the lie that has been hidden since the foundation of the world.

You can see this mimetic rivalry everywhere. From children with their toys, to teenagers for the latest clothes or mobile phones, to adults with their promotions and parenting styles, to grandparents with their grandchildren and super-funds. We just want to fit in, belong, find intimacy, and we’ll cut down others, scapegoat them (usually the vulnerable), to do it.

Towards the end of the discussion Ash Williams make a comment ‘the truth will set you free’ after one caller rang in and exposed the fact that the Swinger was judging the Cougar because of a feeling that everyone else judges her. His comment seemed to imply that you’ll be ‘free’ when you just allow everyone to see and know you, let your swinging lifestyle out in the open, thus the ‘truth’ will set you ‘free’. It’s really good of him to quote Jesus from John 8:32, but what Jesus is talking about is this mimetic rivalry motivated by the desire to have what others have, all in an attempt to ‘belong.’ Jesus is talking about being slaves to sin, that if we hold to his teaching, we will be set free from this mimetic rivalry and scapegoat mechanism.

Kate also made a very insightful comment saying that ‘we all judge.’ Which is true, but to make judgments about behaviour, or ideas, or morals is not wrong. What is wrong is to make judgments about others thinking that we are somehow superior to them, that we are not susceptible to doing exactly the same things that they are. Jesus puts it like this:

3″Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

The ‘Swinger’ was trying to justify herself that she wasn’t as bad as the ‘Cougar’, and vice versa. Really, given the same circumstances, we are all just as capable and susceptible to the same sorts of evil. We have all sinned, and participated in the evil of humanity, that selfish desire to own and control. Realising this truth will indeed set you free, and the only way to see it, is in the sinless life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Coooliris and Feedly – Too Cool for School!

Just wanted to mention a couple of really cool things I’ve come across lately in terms of organising your informatoin/social-media lifestyle!

The first is called ‘Cooliris’. This is one funky program that allows you to search all the latest news according to a range of different topics (channels) and presents it in this scrolling 3D image/video based format. My words can’t really do it justice – I’m just looking forward to seeing how this thing works on the ipad!

The second is called ‘Feedly’. What ‘Feedly’ does is take all your blog feeds and the presents them in this sweet looking ‘magazine’ type lay out. Better than what I was using (FeedDemon) in terms of just general enjoyment of reading blogs, but I’m yet to see if it has the capacity to deal with the hundreds of blog post I use FD to categorise and track.

Just Give Up Your Disputes…

In this excerpt, Girard is asked how ethics play out according to his theory. What I find interesting is that he suggests when faced with some kind of conflict, to be a follower of Jesus means that you ‘give up a dispute when mimetic rivalry is taking over’ – wooooo!

Think about the ramifications of actually living this out: All the theological/political/philosophical discussions that get taken over by the desire just to be right! Think of all the motivation one derives from just trying to be the best, from trying to get that promotion, from trying to take the best photograph, from trying to get the highest mark, from trying to score the hottest boy in school. It’s all driven by mimetic rivalry!

Give that up???

Now that’s radical…

J.W.: You just touched on the question of ethics. There is a sense or intuition that the mimetic scapegoating theory is driven by ethical concerns. Certainly it should have important ethical implications, don’t you agree?

R.G.: It certainly does, and one should always look to the Gospels. What are the prescriptions of the Kingdom of God? Basically, give up a dispute when mimetic rivalry is taking over. Provide help to victims and refuse to all violence. I find the allegory of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25 to be a very key text; it’s all there. When we identify with a person in need or who has beeen victimised, we encounter the Son of Man, Jesus Christ.

What the mimetic theory as such facilitates is the understanding that these ethical prescriptions or principles are against the mimetic spirit of the mob. The Gospels show that faith emerges when individuals come out of the mob.

Rene Girard, ‘The Anthropology of the Cross: A Conversation with Rene Girard’, in James G. Williams (ed.), The Girard Reader, (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1996), 278-279.

Women as Morally Superior According to Girard

Rene Girard’s theory inverts our ideas of superiority to show that women, in truth, show moral superiority over their male counterparts by largely not participating in the cycles of mimetic contagion which have led to violence, murder and wars over the ages:

I find it strange that women so badly want participation in the male power of archaic societies, for it is precisely their real superiority that women don’t appear, for the most part, as the primary agents of violence. If they want now to join the power games of the males, and that is understandable, are they not losing their real moral superiority?

As important as the apostles are in the Gospels, the women around Jesus are just as important but in a different way: they are that part of humanity which has nothing to do with scapegoating him. They are the ones who stick with him through the crucifixion…

If anything my hypothesis is pro-woman. It is peculiar how people moved by new ideologies want to be part of the power structure even retrospectively, and to be seen as responsible for some of the horrors that have left their mark on us. This greed to participate in violence of men is incomprehensible to me.

Rene Girard, ‘The Anthropology of the Cross: A Conversation with Rene Girard’, in James G. Williams (ed.), The Girard Reader, (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1996), 275-276.

Girard’s Three Great Moments

Rene Girard summarising his three greatest moments in writing:

I would say that there have been three great moments in the process of my thinking and writing.

First was mimetic desire and rivalry, when I realised that it accounted for so much. The second was the discovery of the scapegoat mechanism. This basically completed the mimetic theory…The third great moment of discovery for me was when I began to see the uniqueness of the Bible, especially the Christian text, from the standpoint of the scapegoat theory…In the Gospels we have the revelation of the mechanism that dominates cultures unconsciously.

Rene Girard, ‘The Anthropology of the Cross: A Conversation with Rene Girard’, in James G. Williams (ed.), The Girard Reader, (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1996), 262.

Rene Girard – are the Gospels mythical?

This year I’ll be doing a research project on a guy called Rene Girard. There are two main ideas to Girardian theory: 1) mimetic rivarly, and 2) the scapegoat mechanism. I could try outlining his ideas in a nutshell, but the nutshell wouldn’t be a very ordered or persuasive one. Maybe by the end of the year I might be able to do justice to it succinctly. My research project will probably be looking at how our Christian ‘religious’ systems actually perpetuate mimetic rivalry and scapegoating (aka, in Christian language, as SIN), rather than imitating Christ in exposing it and overcoming it. As I do my research and thinking I’ll be posting the interesting stuff here at Doozy, so I’ll be really interested in your thoughts and ideas???!

The best and most concise outline of his views, from a Biblical-theological perspective, is this article called ‘Are the Gospels Mythical?.’ It’s a pretty dense read, but illuminates some really key ideas, and definitely worth the hour it will probably take you to read! The beautfiul thing about these ideas is that they bring the social sciences and theology together in a really convincing way.

If you’re not a Christian and are open to being convinced, Girard’s a pretty challenging one to read!

The Doozy-times they are a changin’….My Wii and toys!

So, I have been on a bit of a holiday from blogging…

Contemplated stopping, for my interests and passions are a changing…

But instead decided to just let the blog morph along with my interests…

So what we’ll see a lot of from here on in is things to do with Tribe (church, god, theology etc.) and lots to do with this guy Rene Girard who brings together the social sciences and theology in a really fascinating way.

Here’s a video to start the new chapter of Doozy 2010, based on a quote from CS Lewis which gives some correction to my perception of joy/success/desire:

http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/2010/02/we-are-far-too-easily-pleased/

The toy that I”m playing with still is the Wii – not that there’s anything wrong with that, necessarily. Mario Bros and NBA2K10 are brilliant, and playing games with others is just a forum for flourishing relationships, but I’m increasingly realising that the joys of intimate community far outweigh even the new Marios Bros Wii! Big call, I know, but once you get up to world 8 you realise that even MBW is but a fleeting glimpse of joy and that we are wired for sooooo much more.