Episode Details

There is a machine that built every civilization on earth. It runs on borrowed desire, collective violence, and a lie so old no one alive remembers when it started.

René Girard spent his career proving it — and one ancient text broke it open.

"Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World" (1978) argues that all human culture — every religion, every legal code, every political order — was built on the same mechanism: a community in crisis, mimetic violence spreading, and one victim sacrificed to restore the peace. Girard called this the scapegoat mechanism. And he found that one text — and only one — ever told that story from the victim's side.

This video covers Girard's theory of mimetic desire, the mimetic crisis, the scapegoat mechanism, and why the Gospels represent the most radical inversion in the history of human storytelling. It ends with a question you won't be able to stop asking.

Based on "Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World" by René Girard (1978).

0:00 Intro
1:33 What This Video Is About
3:08 Mimetic Desire — You Don't Want What You Want
6:03 When Desire Becomes Rivalry
8:58 The Scapegoat Mechanism
12:29 How the Lie Held for Thousands of Years
14:44 Gerard Reads the Gospels
16:10 The Moment the Machine Is Exposed
19:33 What Happens When the Lie Breaks Down
23:08 What to Do With This
24:46 Conclusion

#philosophy #psychology #consciousness #mimesis #bookbreakdown #girard #selfdeception

Become a member of this channel to enjoy benefits:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh6gJYYFDueIzAk_Jn6SmZw/join

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices