The aggressor has always already been attacked. Why are relations of rivalry never seen as symmetrical? Because people always have the impression that the other is the first to attack, that they are never the ones who begin, though in a way they are always the ones. Individualism is a formidable lie. We make others understand that we recognize the signs of aggressiveness which they manifest, and they in turn interpret our posture as aggression.
René Girard Connected to the Carolinas
Source
Battling to the End: Conversations with Benoit Chantre (Michigan State University Press, 2009), ch.1, §3.
- year
- 2009
Cite this record
“The aggressor has always already been attacked. Why are rela…” René Girard. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-D2EA8C0BB7. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/d2ea8c0bb7
More from René Girard
When the father is no longer an overbearing patriarch the son looks everywhere for the law - and finds no lawgiver.
There is no culture without a tomb and no tomb without a culture; in the end the tomb is the first and only cultural symbol. The above-ground tomb does not have to be invented. It is the pile of stones in which the victim of the unanimous stoning is buried. It is the first pyramid.
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