girard and ventura

thanks to whoever it was who came across this blog via this search (in italian), because it also came up with this excellent recent article on rene girard by michael kirwan. the article gives a brief background to girard's theories on religion and violence, as well as a basic description of those theories and their implications in regards to the recent hostage killings in iraq.

this paragraph in particular caught my eye:

"Of the many perspectives that this insight opens up, it is worth mentioning at least one. Girard asserts at one point that he is interested in 'conflict as a subtle destroyer of the differential meaning it seems to inflate'. What this means in plain language is none other than the paradox that violence makes antagonists identical to one another, even when their mutual hatred stresses only the differences (racial, religious) between them."

i think this is an extremely important observation, one that needs to be highlighted again and again in a political climate that gains so much mileage out of preaching a polarised, 'us good them evil', view of the world. of all the lies and deceptions which have been told us by our leaders since september 11 2001, this is, in my view, the most odious and destructive.

while on the subject, i highly recommend michael ventura's brilliant essay the lessons of guernica on the evidence that conflict makes antagonists resemble each other (though it's not clear if he owes the insight to girard). as ventura writes:

"Be careful how you choose your enemy, for you will come to resemble him. The moment you adapt your enemy's methods, your enemy has won. The rest is suffering and historical opera."