Since modern doctrines seek out the causes of social ills, they constitute the modern analogue of casting out the devil, or the scapegoating mechanisms. Where they differ from older methods of exorcism is that they look to cast out bad ideas, rather than bad persons.

Browder tumbled out of bed late the next day, and by the time he shaved and showered, he was comfortably in time for the appointed lunch. A text from Stefan had informed him of the time and place, which luckily was also in central Belgrade, walking distance.

Why can’t there be more equality in the distribution of nice weather among the nations of this earth? If only this could change somehow.

Some things about high levels of consumptions are not so nice. There’s exploitation of the environment. Every bourgeois hysteric will tell you all about it, so I will not. I want to talk about the role of mimesis in consumption.

Rene Girard views all violence as being rooted in mimesis, the imitative process by which humans acquire the desires of others. As people begin to compete for the same object, they become rivals, and when conflict breaks out, they become enemies. The same dynamic plays out at all levels, from individual to national. Putting aside the pacifists bird’s eye view on war that Girard has developed at length, can we use the unique insights of mimetic theory to develop a battle manual? Is there a mimetic-theory art of war? 

The source of commotion was a small bar, a little to the right across the street, titled the “Brioni Bar” above a glass front. The DJ skilfully mixed a medley of international and domestic hits, and also served up classic songs spanning several decades.

The degree to which a society manages violence measures the degree of its civilisation.

Browder never got to know the city of Belgrade, as every time he visited back as an adolescent, he was dragged into the province to visit various relatives. This time, he figured that he would extend his grand European vacation to that city too.

Common to all of these utopian systems was the idea that individuals can live in accordance to the practical interest either of themselves or their collective, or a balance of the two. This idea clashes with René Girard’s view of human behavior as a never-ending cycle of self-destructive violence whose cause is - approximately speaking - envy.

An earnest student of Girard cannot help but be struck by how much the current political crisis in the United States resembles the dynamics of mimetic crisis, a central concept of Girard’s work.

Upon the sprawled street plains

of clean painted asphalt and lawns, and picket fences

ever-conquering the nine to five pains

rule undisputed the Suburban Princes

What I will bring up here is a specific phenomenon engendered by the modern age: the monomaniac intellectual. This is a thinker who comes up with a good idea, a brilliant vision, and then tries to explain everything using it. René Girard fits the description.

René Girard is famous for developing the theory of mimetic desire. At its core is the simple idea that we imitate the desires of others. Our physiological needs fulfilled; we look to people we admire to inform us about what is it we should be after. So far, you wouldn’t think there’s a great revelation here, right?

This loneliness is violent babe

Not all of us can be geniuses, but all of us can be loyal.

War had torn up the home country and there was an infestation of rats. They ran in the state and on the streets, and regular citizens were driven destitute. Every lever of power would snap under rot, and every association was infested with rats.

Europe seemed a million miles away from the start-up tech scene back in the USA.

“A family, group, or government controlled by a man or a group of men”, says the W-M dictionary about patriarchy. But they don’t have space for essays there.

Five young professionals sat around couches in the lobby to the auditorium of Schwartzmann Business School.