Good Girardians
January 01, 2006
In my earlier remarks on the prevalence of religious liberals and moral revisionists who see themselves as disciples of René Girard, some may (wrongly) infer that I think such persons are approved by Girard or that their ideas flow directly from his work without contradiction. It has been pointed out to me that some Girardians are quite displeased, as Gil Bailie is, with what he describes as “a growing tendency to use Girard’s thought to reinforce forms of political correctness and victimary thinking for which it was once thought to be a reliable antidote.” He continues, “[W]e are morally paralyzed by a simple-minded victimary ethic that fancies itself free of sacrificial thinking precisely to the degree that it sacrifices the tradition that taught us to think about victims in the first place. … [I]nstead of turning to inclusion and diversity as the universal elixir, perhaps we should ask: What is being expelled by those waving the banner of inclusion?”
This is good to know and not exactly new to me; I’ve known a few Girard enthusiasts, and I think we still have some involved with TNP. But without disparaging the admirable work of Mr. Bailie and others like him, it is worth asking if Girard’s work lends itself to or is in some way implicated in contemporary liberal-liberationist anti-victimary victimary ideology. My sense of his work (based on extensive and enthusiastic reading some years ago) leads me to think the aswer is “yes.”
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