본고에서는 르네 지라르의 최근 저작을 통해서 그가 분석하는 현대사회의 위대함 동시에 그 연약함을 논의한다. 지라르에게 있어서 현대 서구사회는 전통적 사회나 원시적 사회와는 구별되는 독특한 업적을 이루었다. 지라르에 있어서 현대사회는 최선의 사회 인 동시에 최악의 사회이기도 하다. 지라르는 계몽주의적 전통에 서 있으면서도 그 변증법과 연약함을 동시에 본다. 지라르에게 있어서 희생양 메커니즘은 문명을 보호하는 메커니즘이었다. 이 메커니즘의 작동원리가 유대-기독교의 텍스트에 의해서 가시적으로 드라나게 되고 또한 비판받게 됨에 따라 새로운 사회시스템이 탄생하게 된다. 이로 인해 서구적 의미에서의 인권과 평등, 그리고 민주주의가 싹트게 된 것이다. 이는 서구 문화의 업적이지만, 또한 새로운 거대한 위기도 가져왔다 지라르는 이 전 지구적인 차원에서의 차이소멸 혹은 무차별화 과정을 거대한 새로운 희생위기로 분석했다. 현대인의 불만과 르상티망은 바로 내적 중개의 시대인 현대사회의 구조와 관련이 있다. 전통적 사회가 내부의 폭력과 갈등을 여러 형태의 채널과 희생양 메커니즘을 통해서 초기에 억압하고 통제하기에 외적으로 평화스러워 보이고，안정되어 보이는 차가운 사회라면, 서구적 의미의 현대사회는 그 전통적 메커니즘이 더 이상 제대로 작동하지 않는 뜨거운 사회라고 볼 수 있다. 파시즘의 문제는 바로 이 차이소멸 혹은 무차별화되고，평등하고 민주적인 현대사회의 불확실성과 다양성，시간과 역사의 테러라는 뜨거운 긴장을 견디지 못하거나，혹은 전통적 사회와 그 신화로 복귀함으로 그 불확실성을 해소하려는 위험한 시도라고 지라르는 분석한다.
According to Girard, the gradual erosion of every dharma, of every rigid social hierarchy and division based on sacral norms, has plunged the modern individual into mimetic social flux, deep into ever more extreme oscillations of desire and resentment mobilized by the increasing democratization of societies. A stable hierarchy canalizes the mimetic desire because of a restriction on external mediation and thus prevents imitation leading to conflict. The primitive religions, many world religions and traditional cultures are shaped by the principle of hierarchy and social differentiation (caste system in Hinduism; graded priestly caste and hierarchical bureaucracy in the Inca empire, etc.) The modern world, however, is characterized by increasing competition, growing rivalry and increasing feelings of envy and jealousy. The traditional, anti-egalitarian movements feel the potential danger of the disappearance of social differences and therefore try to maintain the social differences. Girard rightly points out the curse and blessing of mimetic competition In modern society. Girard stressed the importance of renunciation as a way out of the abyss of mimetic rivalry. He used the paradoxical formulation of the creative renunciation. At first glance, Girard's emphasis on the creative renunciation, especially those phrases that speak explicitly of a renunciation of the mimetic desire, seems to be close to Buddhism that sees overcoming of all human suffering in the extinction of desire. Girard sees the solution but not in the denial of life itself, but the death of arrogant attempt at self-empowerment. For Girard, the biblical revelation of scapegoat mechanism destroyed the archaic forms of violence reduction and led to the modern world, which can be interpreted as a large mimetic crisis. If the history of modern society is marked by the dissolution of differences, that clearly has something to do with the sacrificial crisis. Indeed, the phrase modern world seems, for Girard, almost like a synonym for sacrificial crisis. Girard has noted, however, that the modern world manages to retain its balance, precarious though it may be; and the methods it employs to do so, though extreme, are not so extreme as to destroy the fabric of the society. Primitive societies are unable to withstand such pressures. Whereas traditional societies had institutions that maintained social differences and so averted or canalized the outbreak of mimetic crisis, modern societies including Buddhist modern societies are characterized by the pursuit of equality with the result that the mimetic crisis is constantly lying in wait. But, in spite of apocalyptic view on modernity, Girard acknowledges the achievement of the modern and western world and its growing ability to decipher phenomena of collective violence and then to produce texts of persecution rather than myths. The discovery of the founding mechanism as a mechanism not only of religion but of culture itself is a decisive step. A society that replaces myth by an awareness of persecution is a society in the process of desacralization. Girard says that outside modern and western society the mechanism is invisible because it is constantly in retreat. In Judaeo-Western society, on the other hand, it has gradually come forward again and is more and more visible. This growing visibility has innumerable consequences. In so far as light is shed on the victimage mechanism, concepts like violence and unjust persecution become thinkable and began to paly a larger role in cultural institutions.
