“Not enough!” and international restorative justice: Colloquium on Violence and Religion Presntation, 31 May — 4 June, 2006, Ottawa Ontario, Canada.

Source: (2009) Justice Reflections. Issue 22(159).

This is Girard’s theory and restorative justice taken to the final frontier of inter-state relationships. Scapegoating violence under the aegis of the state in response to wrongdoing domestically (crime) and internationally (war) is the most ubiquitous, iniquitous, and pervasive addiction known to humanity. It is also the most hidden addiction in Western democracies precisely where its opposite, benign humanism, is most loudly protested, thereby enabling its committed aficionado/addicts to spew forth with abandon platitudes and claims of noble “civilizations” and simultaneously bombs, bullets and ballistic missiles. (excerpt)