The Art of Disengagement

Midsommar, Scapegoating, and the Anti-Mimetic Mind

A scene from the movie Midsommar.

The French social theorist René Girard once remarked that the Egyptian pyramids — stone monuments constructed over the tops of dead kings — were architectural designs that symbolized something more profound in human behavior. The pyramids, he said, are a reflection of what a pile of rocks looks like after a collective stoning. Art reflects nature.