Has the press conference after a police shooting of a black victim, become a rite of sacrifice? And has us re-watching it, a partaking of the 'eucharist'?
#ReneGirard,""In primitive societies the risk of unleashed violence is so great & the cure so problematic that the emphasis naturally falls on prevention. The preventive measures naturally fall within the domain of religion, where they can on occasion assume a violent character.”
Consequently, religious practice above all aims to placate violence, and to inhibit its unleashing, by means of violence, no less. The conciliatory victim was laden with all of a society’s violent tendencies, which were then diverted to the exterior with the victim’s death. 2/
Sacrifice is “a deliberate act of collective substitution performed at the expense of the victim and absorbing all the internal tensions, feuds, and rivalries pent up within the community. … The purpose of the sacrifice is to restore harmony to the community, 3/
to reinforce the social fabric.” The victim functions as a lightning rod. Violence is diverted to a surrogate object by way of subterfuge."
📚 #ByungChulHan, Topology of Violence, 2018.
📚 #ByungChulHan, Topology of Violence, 2018.
@threadreaderapp unroll
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
