Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Olly Rathbone's avatar

What a lovely essay. I’m still digesting it but an initial thought is on times arrow. As both Christian theology and the modern myth of progress (which you discuss in your Marxism book) have a distinct identity in time and of a beginning and the end of history presumably modern states have as part of their mythos that despite their continuous progress one day it’s all going down in flames despite their best efforts? Seems very schizophrenic and maybe explains a lot of recent politics.

Expand full comment
Charles Eisenstein's avatar

This essay rewards careful and considered reading.

Although it doesn't mention Rene Girard explicitly, this essay invokes a lot of Girardian themes, which could enrich the thesis still further. Girard would identify the "mystery of lawlessness" in terms of sacrificial violence, in which society channels its rivalries and tensions onto a scapegoat or scapegoat class. The orgy of mob violence restores the social order, because the need for vengeance and the need to "do something" has been satisfied, and what's more, directed at victims who cannot themselves seek revenge (even if they are not all killed) because of their outsider, dehumanized status. They are not full members of society. Historically, Jews, Blacks, deviants, prisoners of war, or convicts served this function. Or sometimes, as both you and Girard mention, the king himself.

The Left and Right now vie to dehumanize the other, so that when the Dionysian storm, which grows ever stronger the longer that landfall is postpone, finally arrives, that it will be the other side that falls victim to the frenzy.

This pattern is far older than Christianity. Indeed, some theologians argue that Christianity carries the seed of the transcendence of the pattern of sacrificial violence. Normally, after the murderous orgy, the victim is mythologized as an arch-villain or demon, the repository of the evil that has now been removed from society. The Christ story insists on the innocence of the victim. It has been construed to mean "Jesus was innocent but everyone else is a sinner who deserves to go to hell," but the true teaching, if I may, is about the innocence of all victims and the unholiness of the scapegoating pattern.

Expand full comment
13 more comments...

No posts