Mimesis (Imitation) and Scapegoating in ALWAYS PARTLY BROKEN

 

Initially, identifying violent mimesis in ourselves can be a scary or a depressing thing: “You mean I was involved in this violent thinking and acting and didn’t know it?” And we may at first be unwilling to see it. “No! I was never Cain! I was always Abel, the good guy, the victim of the situation and the bearer of outrageous fortune.”

The following essay takes for granted an author's almost unlimited understanding of the main characters in his own story, ALWAYS PARTLY BROKEN.  Here I am using more information than was supplied between the covers of this little book.  For those unfamiliar, the theory and implications of mimesis and scapegoating is a big subject for one blog, so the following is just a bare bones sketch of it.  I'm trying to keep these blogs short and sweet.

In chapter two of ALWAYS PARTLY BROKEN, we see that Raymond Adam (RA) was a child who looked at his siblings for how to shape his desires.  All humans do this.  I never knew I wanted a pair of Michael Jordan gym shoes until I saw others I admired wearing MJ gym shoe.  Turns out-this natural tendency for imitation, also known as mimesis, helps to account for RA's love-hate relationship with art.  When he went into the monastery, RA had an insatiable desire for artistic expression, which he sought to give up just as he sought to give up so many other  challenging situations in his short life. At about the age one learns to use a pencil, RA observed his older siblings Carrie, Jeremy and an older cousin Dennis drawing pictures and getting attention from significant others. Mimetically, imitatively, RA desired to get the same coveted attention as they were getting by downloading the same desire software into his heart. We should note that art-making was an activity RA hadn’t even noticed, much less desired, prior to this exposure to his influential models. 

Where things got violent for him is when he not only wanted to draw “like” them, he eventually wanted to be better than they were at drawing. Better drawing brought him better attention. His family was big and it was easy for RA to feel neglected. His fascination was focused primarily on Jeremy, who was closest to him in age and therefore almost his twin—what some would call his mimetic double. Deep down, RA always felt that the two of them were in competition.

  
As this dynamic evolved, RA began to feel persecuted by Jeremy in the form of just a few critical statements Jeremy made about RA's drawings.  It was perhaps just an innocent pointing out by Jeremy of a weakness or two in his little brother's early artistic efforts.  RA felt as if he was being savagely attacked and became irrationally angry towards one of his closest siblings, not only in age, but in interests and in talents. 

It was like these mimetic twins were reenacting the Esau and Jacob story or the Cain and Abel story from Genesis. RA saw himself as the victim Abel and his older brother Jeremy as Cain, but when he went away to the monastery he began to wonder if the true dynamic wasn’t actually the reverse. Wasn’t he, RA, the jealous one and the one who tried to competitively kill his brother so he could be king of the art hill?  

The French thinker Rene Girard’s grand theory of mimesis and scapegoating attempts to help us understand why we do certain things that are violent and dysfunctional. One is reminded of Saint Paul‘s expression to awaken from our slumber to a new life in Christ; in other words, to wake up to the truth about our real situations in life.  What are the most fulfilling needs here beyond our immediate, and often blind, feelings? And what are the most meaningful methods for fulfilling our uniquely human purposes?  Jesus shortens this process to a simple phrase: Repent and believe the good news (rather than always acting according to the worse-case scenario stories we keep telling ourselves.)

Initially, identifying violent mimesis in ourselves can be a scary or depressing thing: “You mean I was involved in this violent thinking and acting and didn’t know it?” And we may at first be unwilling to see it. “No! I was never Cain! I was always Abel, the good guy, the victim of the situation and the bearer of outrageous fortune."

Of course, similar interests and shared desires are natural and generally healthy in human relationships, but it’s also possible to see the process of mimesis overlapping and corrupting this natural tendency. Its like good sportsmanship turned into ugliness, like diplomacy turned into war.  Before we get too frightened of our potential for violent mimesis, we can remind ourselves that early detection can lead to timely intervention. This is why we need fair referees and good models of human behavior in all areas of life.  In this way, awareness becomes wisdom—wisdom for making room for better choices and happier outcomes.

Jesus said that our potential enemies will be in our own households—which I interpret to mean in our closest relationships. I think he is saying: "Here is the human tendency up to now. I’m telling you so you won’t be blindsided by the phenomenon when you experience it." I think this is an example of Jesus giving us a forward warning. Instead of acting in a way that is natural in a dysfunctional society, we are encouraged to act differently and like him.

Dostoevsky said. “Love in truth is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.” I see Renee Girard as putting a mirror in front of our human nature and saying “Look at the truth and learn to go beyond the distortions that blind you to your tendency towards mimetic rivalry." Jesus never denied that the scapegoat mechanism exists.  Instead, he became the world's most famous (but certainly not the only) scapegoat so that we could see it for what it is and break free.”

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