Violence: how it forms us and how we can be self-critical about it // العنف وممارسات النقد الذاتي

Abstract

This article examines the value of René Girard's thoughts concerning the relationship between violence and the sacred for those involved in any kind of violence. It analyses the three essential dimensions of the Girardian insight, including the mimetic nature of desire, the working of the scapegoat mechanism in the process of humanization, and the prophetic critique of sacrifice. Against the common misapprehensions about Girard's thought with regard to its falsifiability and ideological totality, this article proposes that Girardian thought could serve as a as resource for self-criticism for those involved in contexts of violence. The article outlines various moments of this process: heartbreak, including the realization of sameness instead of difference; truthfulness, or the slow process of exiting mendacity; the losing of an addiction to cheap meaning; and finally the setting free of a healthy imagination.