[Toine]

This is just one more "proof" of René Girard's mimetic theory. The scapegoat mechanism at the core of all human societies was heavily explained and documented 50 years ago. René Girard, whose theories heavily influenced the world vision of Peter Thiel and many more, is still dramatically absent in this kind of articles. I'm not sure why. His mimetic theory absolutely revolutionized the field of anthropology, theology, and many more should come. I strongly suggest reading Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. Changed my life.

[photojosh]

Same here, last year I devoured tons of writing on mimetic theory. And now I'm moving on to think about how we reconcile mimetic theory with theories of origin of consciousness, so this article was quite useful.

Where I would push back slightly on your comment: what's described in the article isn't scapegoating in the Girardian sense of the word. Because if when a man kills multiple others, then is killed for doing so, he actually is guilty (and a scapegoat isn't). But... it is likely rather the source of the development of scapegoating.

I think that scapegoating then develops when there is chaos in a society that isn't caused by the actions of an individual or the individual responsible can't be discovered. These primitive humans has seen already that violence/chaos can be stopped by putting an end to the cause of it, such as in the case of a violent man. There's chaos, there must be a cause, so who do we blame? Violá, our scapegoat.

[devoply]

I really wonder how these ideas are such a revelation, we are still domesticating people just look at the prison system, what do you think that's all about?

[Toine]

I'm not sure I can summarize such a global theory in a comment, but basically, he started from a simple truth : the mimetic nature of humans. You want what you want, not because of the intrinsic qualities of objects, but because you're imitating others. Inevitably, this leads to rivalry and conflict. Animals deal with this violence with what we call dominance patterns : the loser will very often yield to the now dominant animal, and the entire society will be ruled with complex hierarchies based on this. However, humans are too mimetic to be able to end violence like that. In our species, unrestricted violence ends in death. It can then rapidly spread across the community and bring chaos. The way primitive humans have dealt with this conflict is to turn the blame on someone else, the scapegoat, which suddenly turns into a primitive sacred being. At first, he is seen as an evil being responsible for all the chaos. Then, after being sacrificed, he is seen as the ultimate savior of the community. You now have the mechanism creating primitive religions.

English isn't my native language, I hope I've been clear enough so that you can imagine the enormous consequences of such a ground-breaking theory on every aspect of human life. I suggest reading the books.