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René Girard and the Mimetic Trap
We learn from mimicking others, we must choose wisely what and who we imitate
René Girard regaled the small group I was in with sweeping stories of history, weaving together the works of The Bible, Proust, Dostoevsky, Cervantes, Flaubert, and Stendhal. In the U.S. presidential primaries, candidates start with distinct messages, but as frontrunners emerge, rivals mimic their rhetoric, intensifying divisions and leading to political polarization. We should learn from the cautionary tales in Quixote’s madness, in Bovary’s illusions, in the cunning schemes of Stendhal’s social climbers, and above all, heed the historical cacophony of crowds demanding blood.
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