Did the French Revolution usher in a new golden age of freedom for the liberated masses? It created an…
Did the French Revolution usher in a new golden age of freedom for the liberated masses?
It created an Emperor even more powerful than the royalty and aristocracy it beheaded.
Being non-conformist rigidifies conformity further. /1 https://t.co/NKIfSfY3Ea
The Russian Revolution? We got the joys of Stalin, and now Putin. A century of ‘authoritarians’.
Conformist social hierarchies opposed by non-conformists create…more social hierarchies. /2 https://t.co/1pFCvEltji
China exactly the same The dreaded ‘authoritarian’ CCP that’s the whipping boy internationally right now?
Also the direct outcome of an earlier revolution. /3 https://t.co/qHuCvqe9Fi
Many respond to the fact that social conformity runs societies by assuming this means conformity is bad.
In our political libertarian times, of course we’re going to think that. And we’re tragically wrong. /4
I refer to Rene Girard’s work, who made the study of conformity (now called mimetics) his life’s work.
Gabriel Tarde before him was an even more profound thinker of imitation and conformity. /5 https://t.co/Qp4kIU729f
Imitation and conformity create our societies. It’s the most atomic or basic human behaviour.
Tarde pointed out that those who are non-conformist are even more deeply conformist, obsessed with conformity. /6
The lessons of France and Russia are that humans not only want hierarchy. They cannot avoid creating it.
It’s an ontological thing. Part of reality itself. /7
We imitate, in teams, copying our chosen hero in whatever area of life. Then our team comes into competition with other teams.
Teams that worship other heroes. Imitative rivalry, as Girard called it. Non-conformists just imitate other heroes. /8
This merry-go-round is only ever halted by violence. Catastrophe. Either human-made, or natural disasters.
Revolutions. Pandemics. But this just levels the playing field, for new hierarchies. New teams, new hierarchies. /9
Girard identified the circuit-breaker. Scapegoats. Behead the aristocrats! Vote out the [insert political party]!
Clearing the field for more of the same. New hierarchies, new emperors. New teams to engage in team sports, thinking they’re creating something. /10
Regardless of anybody’s feelings about religion, anthropologically Girard saw that Christianity had done something remarkable.
It targeted the scapegoating mechanism itself. Brought it into the light. /11 https://t.co/hBSypK1YEi
By making its central story the scapegoating and destruction of a clear innocent, it forced people to question the mechanism itself.
Historically and politically, this single shift created Western societies. They can’t see it. /12
It was this shift that gave us centuries of accumulating social progress, through the institution of the church.
You can’t really talk about this today, without today’s team sports around religion obstructing the view. /13
I’m not ‘religious’ in that modern team sports way. Not an adherent to any particular faith.
But I see how the West in particular was built. By institutions that rejected team sports. That rejected mimetic violence and scapegoating. /14
That harnessed conformity in new ways. Rather than engage in dreary, bloody, endless wars of conformity versus non-conformity.
What will be our next ‘Christ’? Many would like to think that Christian message has enough power for today. It doesn’t seem likely. /15
The planet itself is my guess. We will need to put aside the team sports to survive. Not out of some ridiculous hubris about ‘saving the planet’.
It will survive without us.
We’ll do it to save ourselves. Maybe. /end https://t.co/DBvI0BfB2C
