http://payingattentiontothesky.com/2010/02/04/rene-girard/ No one was paying attention to the sky... Thu, 24 May 2012 19:26:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://payingattentiontothesky.com/2010/02/04/rene-girard/#comment-1218 Sat, 28 Aug 2010 07:32:55 +0000 http://payingattentiontothesky.com/?p=1744#comment-1218 While Girard identifies a (scapegoating) crowd (correctly,I believe), the Bible, eg. John, identifies “the Jews” as constituting that crowd. The scapegoat mechanism which Girard describes cannot, it seems to me, be the same one “revealed” in the Bible except by overlooking what would appear – please correct me – to be an accusation against a group as such, not an instance of humanity’s violence. In Girardian terms would this not be an example of concealing the nature of violence – by insinuating that its origins are, well, tribal. Peter’s denial is an exemplary story of the individual tempted to join in a lie. The individuals who give in to it – serial Peters you might say – may justify themselves in the name of the group (“we Jews”, “we Christians”, the examples are potentially endless), but this is the ultimate (crucial)lie which Girard claims the Bible reveals.Yet the Bible seems to repeat it in the example I offer here.

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