The Silence Is Deafening

A key element of the primitive Sacred as limned by René Girard is complete obfuscation at the place of sacrifice. It is like a black hole the likes of which is so powerful that nothing escapes its pull -- not even the cries of the victim. "Our intellectuals are so eager for servitude that they formed their own Stalinist cells before Stalinism was invented ... Mythology is the very best school in the training of silence," he states in The Scapegoat.

So it should come as no surprise that discussion about Islamist scapegoating violence is (a) not only being shut-down by the quasi-intellectuals, journalists, ministers, and media who deem themselves arbitrators of the terms of conventional discourse, but is also (b) becoming something difficult to grasp, hard to see, blurry, and opaque. Such violence is in itself shutting down discussion. So, stories like this -- Counter-terrorism officials rethink stance on Muslims -- and this on "Hate Speech" will become more and more prevalent as the justifying sacred violence proceeds apace.

Gil Bailie speaks of this silencing effect of the primitive Sacred in imagery of a "vortex":

"...it gets more and more compulsive as this system drags down into its vortex. So much so that at the “pit” of that vortex things happen that we never hear about, never learn about. It’s as though you enter a “black hole” and the gravitational field that surrounds the actual event of victimization is so profound that no “light” escapes. We hear nothing of it.

That is why the Hebrew literature is so unique. Because, suddenly, we begin to hear something out of (the vortex)."

It should also come as no surprise that the primary victim-of-choice of Islamist fascism is the Jew and, by covenantal relationship, Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in particular. Both Judaism and Christianity are products of the biblical Spirit that allows a voice to be heard from that "vortex" of sacred violence, beginning in the Psalms, proceeding through the Prophets, and culminating in the Paschal Mystery -- the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Be aware of the cloak of silence that is being cast over the violence of Islamist fascism. It will be persistent and insistent and extremely seductive. Do not allow the silence to deafen your mind and heart to the "still, small voice" that will not, that cannot be silenced any longer by such attempts of pagan silencing around its sacrificial altar.