The battles were so fierce because the stakes were so small: a Salon on René Girard

Alex Danco joins fellow Interintellects for a Salon about the philosophy of René Girard, the (in)famous father of modern mimetic theory.
We’re going to get together and talk about René Girard, and his grand theory of mimetic behaviour. Sub-topics will likely include:

-Scapegoating, cancel culture, and online mobs

-How Silicon Valley works (founder as God-king-sacrifice; VC as priesthood; the central taboo of tech)

-Other thematically adjacent books including Crowds and Power and The Brothers Karamazov

I also want to highlight: there is a lot of philosophy and thinking adjacent to Girard that I do not yet know; so I look forward to learning about it from you!

If you’d like to do any pre-reading, you can read a Girard primer I (re)wrote here:

• Secrets about People: A Short and Dangerous Introduction to René Girard
• Election Day 2020: René Girard, Part 2