A Tragedy of Mimesis

E. Weatherwax brings to the fore an astonishingly horrific and sad tale at New English Review's "The Iconoclast," Man beheads nephew, 1, in Saudi Arabia store.

First reported with all the dismay and shock it so richly deserves in the Arab News, my words are not one of finger-pointing and accusation of a world religion. Rather, I want to ask, "Where did this uncle get such an idea, to behead a toddler in the fruit and vegetable section of the supermarket? Did he wake up thinking, "If that kid or his mother annoy me today, that's it!"

With the slightest amount of awareness, people are capable of recognizing the indisputable fact of mimesis: the reality known by Aristotle and so magnificently expounded upon by René Girard in his "mimetic theory." We are capable of recognizing that the images and ideas that influence us are "caught" from others. The notions that we allow into our realm of conscious and unconscious being have power, heft, and, finally, take action almost without our willing them -- particularly if we believe them somehow to have sanction. Then such actions take on a sort of finality and destiny that leaves us feeling righteous before the divine authority we believe calls us to carry out these actions, peaceable or violent, gathering or scattering, destructive of others and/or ourselves.

This event of a murderous uncle's cleaving his nephew's head from his body if we follow the mimetic thread will lead, I surmise, to recent actions of similar decapitation in the realm of the Scimitar. I do not say this self-righteously as a Christian. After all, where did the once-popular public house name Saracen’s Head come from, do you suppose?

No; the world needs to understand the power of mimesis now as perhaps never before: Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh ... all need to learn. Come, Holy Spirit ...

UPDATE: This story, it is hoped, is evidence of the Holy Spirit at work today: Violence Leaves Young Iraqis Doubting Clerics