Putnam is one of the pre-eminent historians of social change. He recognises the alternating swings between…

Putnam is one of the pre-eminent historians of social change. He recognises the alternating swings between ‘freedom’ individualism and collective ‘we’-based politics. The ‘upswing is triggered by catastrophe, destroying freedumb status-driven society. 1/2 https://t.co/K9SjMgjXHs

As Girard found, the only thing that stops up and downswings is a mechanism for short-circuiting status games. Girard believed Christianity’s invention was that, Christ assuming the scapegoating function. It’s what gave us a couple of millennia of slow social progress. 2/2