by Nathan Smith

For a supposedly “Christian” culture, we sure do celebrate a lot of Satanic rituals out in the open, with state funding.

In my opinion, the worst of these Satanic rituals is ANZAC Day. The commemoration is an almost perfect distillation of everything the character Jesus Christ spoke against. Thinking that something good can come from violence is the very definition of sin. And the worship of the illusory “peace” that comes from violence is the definition of Satanic.

Now, if you’re a modern Christian, you likely haven’t heard Jesus’ message described in this way. There’s a reason for that. Power is shy, and it doesn’t want you to know about how power works. Power relies on everyone thinking that good things can come from violence. Power wants you to believe that sin is adultery or jaywalking. Power doesn’t want you to understand what Jesus meant by sin, and if we’re being honest, you don’t really want to understand it either. After all, a lot of things would have to change in your life if you did.

Everything I’ve written so far above can be found in the New Testament. It’s all right there. French academic Rene Girard learned how to correctly read the bible in a way that had been lost to time, and soon rediscovered that Christianity is a praxis before it is a religion. Jesus said you either live in the Satanic world or you live in the Kingdom of Heaven, right now. You don’t have to die to get there. Christianity is how you act today, not what you believe. Girard’s great achievement was explaining that the core of Jesus’ message is refusing to copy each other (mimicry).

In his magnum opus, Things Hidden Since The Foundation Of The World, Girard wrote that once humans have secured food, water and shelter, the rest of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can be summed up as “what do I do now?”, which boils down to “what desires should I pursue?” Girard said no one desires organically. We are always copying human models and adopting other people’s desires. An object or goal is never desirable on its own. It only becomes desirable to us when another person also desires it. Girard said the things we want are always mediated by the gaze of another person.

This would be fine in a world of infinite resources. But in this world, an object or goal cannot be owned by two people. Private property is binary: you either own something or you don’t. Very quickly, the desire for an object or goal can spiral into a competition, which inevitably turns into a rivalry. At some point, the object or goal is no longer the focus of desire. Instead, both rivals begin to see the other as the stumbling block, or “skandalon,” the Greek term for Satan. The focus of desire then shifts away from the object or goal and to eliminating that rival, usually through violence.

But since neither rival is conscious that their desire is mediated by the other, the competitive tension they feel seems to come from somewhere else, from outside the rivalry. The rivals copy each other so tightly that they almost become the same person, like twins. Neither can see that this is the problem, because if one of them did, he would instantly be different, and the rivalry would evaporate. Difference leads to peace, while sameness (copying) leads to violence.

You can see this unconscious rivalry playing out in the Strait of Hormuz.

The conflict is layered with hundreds of complexities and excuses, each designed to distract from the truth that the US and Iran desire the same thing (the Strait). They are pure Girardian rivals. Both sides are firmly convinced that their desire to control the Strait is not a result of mimicry, but that they are thinking for themselves. They have deployed entire theories of geopolitics, economics and statecraft to justify their desire to control the Strait. But it is a very basic rivalry. Nothing more. Nothing less.

The resolution of such a rivalry can take two forms. First, the two rivals could copy each other so tightly that they escalate into violence, leaving one side destroyed and the object or goal controlled by the survivor. The second path is that the rivals copy each other so tightly and become so alike that they look for an external source of the tension, since each will say, “I can’t possibly be the problem.” This is the creation of a scapegoat.

When everyone is acting the same way, the tension must be coming from outside, so goes Satan’s logic. The conclusion is that the one who is different is the problem. Therefore, the rivals will continue to copy each other by agreeing to commit violence on the scapegoat. And once the scapegoat is destroyed, the rivals feel peace. However, the tension will soon return because the rivals still have not moved past their mutual desire for the same object or goal. They remain as twins.

This is the flat circle of human nature. Girard says humans are the wanting creatures, but we don’t even know how to want. We are evolved to desire, but our desires are never our own. This flaw is so deeply rooted that all civilisations, with no exceptions, were built to both contain rivalries and to leverage them to create power. It is the leveraging of rivalry for power that Jesus referred to as Satanic.

Satan, according to Jesus, is not some mystical entity with a pitchfork. Satan is that quiet whisper, a sudden thought, that if you just get rid of that guy/girl, then you will be happy. Peace is possible through the sword. To participate in a Satanic ritual is to believe that good things can come from violence.

The tricky thing about Satanic rituals is that they come in many flavours and are often hidden by happy, fun stories. A good example is organised sports.

Every rugby team is a rival precisely because they are the same. Rugby teams are copying each other so tightly that they have essentially become twins. They desire the same thing: to win the rugby game. But since only one team can win, the way to resolve the tension is for everyone to pretend the rivals are fighting (tackling, running, etc.) and pretend that one team is destroyed (gets fewer points). Sport is a diluted Satanic ritual. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

Another example is elections. Every three years, we copy each other by picking a political party to support. Some of these parties are wildly different, but that difference is an illusion. We are all competing for the same desire: to win power in government. Yet rather than killing each other in the streets, we have invented a system of counting heads. The “side” with the most supporters wins. But don’t fool yourself. A modern election is just a sophisticated pressure valve to prevent real violence between rival groups.

Satanic rituals also appear in our stories about why violence in the past was good, and why we, today, are the good guys. The further back you go, the dumber these stories sound. The Romans thought they were the good guys, but this story obscures the fact that they killed all their rivals. If the Etruscans or Carthaginians had won, they would have had the same story.

Our story, our Satanic ritual, is ANZAC Day. But because it’s so close to us in historical terms, we can’t see that it’s the same old lie.

In 1914, the British Empire got caught in an out-of-control rivalry with its European rivals, which resulted in the world-ending conflict called WWI. New Zealand joined this war by accepting the implicit justification that using violence on behalf of the British Empire would result in peace. In doing so, New Zealand actively chose to participate in a gigantic Satanic ritual that allows us to believe we are the “good guys” because we killed the “bad guys” in Europe. Today, we actually celebrate the Satanic ritual of WWI.

ANZAC Day is even treated like the birth of our nation. Before WWI, New Zealand was a colony. After WWI, New Zealand began to see itself as a proper country. Why? Because Girard pointed out that defeating a rival is always the genesis of a new identity. The victor can finally say, “I am this, not that,” and peace appears to return.

But that peace, that identity, rests on a mountain of silenced rivals. ANZAC Day is our way of hiding the bloody foundations of our world. The truth is, ANZAC Day is our collective worship of the ancient Satanic idea that something good can come from violence. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. It doesn’t take much imagination to see how Power can leverage this idea to make us do terrible things.

Girard neatly explained Jesus’ framework for a world where Satanic rituals are no longer necessary. As Jesus told the thief who refused to copy everyone else: “Today you will be with me in paradise.” When someone slaps you, turn the other cheek. Don’t copy their violence. No copying, no rivalry. Difference is peace. Sameness is death.

Power does not want you to know this. Power wants you to celebrate ANZAC Day. Maybe it’s time we asked why.

Originally published on The Good Oil.