Terrorism and the Escalation of Violence

Abstract

Because violence is mimetic, the origins of violence are in a sense always also “elsewhere.” Terrorism is not an independent variable emerging without reference to the society around it, but a specific escalation of mimetic violence emerging from the frenzy of the internally mediated mimetic rivalry which increasingly characterizes relationships at a global level. Far from being autonomous, terrorists are mimetically entangled with their opponents. Although terrorists assert their absolute otherness in relation to their opponents, their actions convey their mimetic fascination in model–obstacle and model–rival relationships.