Violence Unveiled: Humanity at the Crossroads
Written by Gil Bailie
Narrated by Randy Coleman-Riese
4/5
()
About this audiobook
This is a Girardian-influenced, engagingly written classic on the nature of violence and the hope for overcoming it in our conflict-ridden world. It is also a literary work, an often miraculous interplay between cultural documents and historical periods.
Gil Bailie wrote Violence Unveiled in the mid-1990s after learning of René Girard’s mimetic theory of human cultural origins. The mimetic theory posits that human interspecies violence posed an existential threat to the continuation of any early human community until the evolution/discovery of a particular kind of directed social violence – scapegoating violence - which in times of social crisis brought peace and harmony to the community at the expense of what would later be understood as a sacred victim or god who becomes a focus of religious awe.
Bailie intertwines various accounts of this phenomenon from history, literature and (then ‘90s) current journalistic sources. The Christian gospel accounts of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the theological reflection on its effects and meaning are understood as the revelatory "unveiling" of the truth of the victim as the source of communal peace.
However, with this new knowledge and its moral implications cultures influenced by the Judeo-Christian tradition scapegoating violence has gradually lost its ability to bring people in crisis together. Without a change in the human heart, a conversion, this will eventually lead to apocalyptic forms of violence.
Related to Violence Unveiled
Related audiobooks
Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ideological Fixation: From the Stone Age to Today's Culture Wars Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReturn of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Souls of Yellow Folk: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Digital Communion: Marshall McLuhan's Spiritual Vision for a Virtual Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kierkegaard: A Single Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Theodicy: a metaphilosophical investigation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Courage to Be Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, a Philosophy, a Warning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5High on God: How Megachurches Won the Heart of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Degenerations of Democracy Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Idea of the World: A Multi-Disciplinary Argument for the Mental Nature of Reality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Finite and Infinite Games Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Good Look At Evil Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTruth and Truthfulness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thomas Aquinas: Understand the Universal Teacher's Greatest Ideas Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Simply Hegel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bernard Lonergan: Christianity’s Response to a Secular Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Teach Philosophy to Your Dog: Exploring the Big Questions in Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Introduction to Metaphysics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus the Pacifist: A Concise Guide to His Radical Nonviolence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWonderworks: The 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The World of Perception: The World of Perception Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Birth and Death of Meaning: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on the Problem of Man; 2nd Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Anthropology For You
The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the World's Largest Experiment Reveals About Human Desire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bullshit Jobs: A Theory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Essays on Desire and Consumption Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Power of Myth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Who Is Wellness For?: An Examination of Wellness Culture and Who It Leaves Behind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Civilized To Death: The Price of Progress Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We Love: The New Science Behind Our Closest Relationships Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Violence Unveiled
22 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The author's premise is that violence starts with belief in mythology and comes to fruition with uncontrolled desire. Any glorification of violence, either in historical war or fictional entertainment can incite violence because of its mimetic nature. Bailie looks at society's tendency to initiate and imitate behavior, including violence. Events like the Rodney King beating happened because the perpetrators escalated and spectators did nothing to stop the brutality, which caused many wonder how the crowd could have descended to such a neanderthal state. He also analyzes the escalation in the British novel Lord of the Flies. In both historical and fictional stories, he see the pattern of belief in some type of myth followed by escalation through imitation.This writer disagrees with the author's contention that the central message of Jesus' crucifixion was more than substitutionary atonenement. Bailie believes that because the story shows mob violence through the eyes of the victim that the anti-violence message is stronger. He also argues that the first death in the Bible, Cain killing Abel, is a theological indication that condemnation of violence must be the central message of Scripture. While many would agree that it is wrong to murder one's brother, it is inaccurate to redirect the central message of the Scripture toward pacificism. Overall, though, this book is a worthwhile exploration. Looking at violence from an anthropological perspective does yield fresh thinking about violence in television and movies.