Boreas Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Adversaries locked in violent conflict exchange acts of aggression. With each act, they attempt to end the fight, to have the "last word of violence." Yet, the exchanges only produce symmetry: as they go blow-for-blow, rather than establishing difference, they become more and more alike. This dynamic applies to all pursuits of desire, which are always pursuits of some tr...

Send us Fan Mail Narcissism is an ever-popular topic. There's a lot of speculation and fascination around it. In this episode, I attempt a mimetic theory breakdown of the phenomenon that simplifies it a great deal. The episode details the various aspects of narcissism and goes over its historical background. It then presents the Girardian idea of narcissism as a failed seduction strategy.

Send us Fan Mail Humans are animals that desire. Unlike animal instinct, which is fixed on predetermined objects and cannot change, desire is always a desire for a higher being - for transcendence - and is determined for us by our models, or mediators, or idols, whom we believe to possess that higher, transcendental being. However, the truth is that no human being possesses transcendence. Our erro...

Send us Fan Mail The victimary mechanism is foundational to human culture, but it already started with animals. For example, chimpanzees seem to hunt to create in-group cohesion. René Girard argued that the victimary mechanism was the motor of hominization, the process that produced humans from animals. By channeling violence outside the group, the mechanism created safe space inside the group whe...

Send us Fan Mail This longer-than-usual episode first goes over the origins of authority. It challenges conventional Marxist, Darwinian, and Hobbesian theories and their derivatives. It presents René Girard's theory of authority evolving out of the archaic role of the human sacrificial victim. Finally, it applies this insight to the modern era and explores its modern implications.

Send us Fan Mail Test run with George talking to himself off-the-cuff about production of monsters.

Send us Fan Mail George reads his latest blog article / newsletter.