Staged Succession: Marginalizing the Victimary and Scapegoating in a Single Move
dennisbouvard.substack.com
Transcending the sacrificial is a demanding project. Sacrificial thinking runs deep, into all our assessments and commitments. Risk calculation is sacrificial: trying to figure out how much suffering is “worth” how much benefit is disguised scapegoating: even if we can’t see or name them, giving the process a more hygienic character, we’re setting aside some of our fellows in the name of preserving the health of the community. But we can’t really do away with risk calculation—indeed, our algorithmic order enshrines by automating it. Resisting stereotypes is part of the anti-sacrificial project, because the stereotype provides the ground for convicting and punishing the individual, not for something he has done, but because we can plausibly enough attribute characteristics to him such that, on balance, he can be taken out, one way or another. Normal life has an irreducible sacrificial dimension—which is why resisting the sacrificial so often veers off into craziness, becoming, in fact, ultra-sacrificial itself.
Staged Succession: Marginalizing the Victimary and Scapegoating in a Single Move
Staged Succession: Marginalizing the…
Staged Succession: Marginalizing the Victimary and Scapegoating in a Single Move
Transcending the sacrificial is a demanding project. Sacrificial thinking runs deep, into all our assessments and commitments. Risk calculation is sacrificial: trying to figure out how much suffering is “worth” how much benefit is disguised scapegoating: even if we can’t see or name them, giving the process a more hygienic character, we’re setting aside some of our fellows in the name of preserving the health of the community. But we can’t really do away with risk calculation—indeed, our algorithmic order enshrines by automating it. Resisting stereotypes is part of the anti-sacrificial project, because the stereotype provides the ground for convicting and punishing the individual, not for something he has done, but because we can plausibly enough attribute characteristics to him such that, on balance, he can be taken out, one way or another. Normal life has an irreducible sacrificial dimension—which is why resisting the sacrificial so often veers off into craziness, becoming, in fact, ultra-sacrificial itself.