The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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I've heard of Girard but I'm uneducated on the topic, is there a good primer out there? Status envy can be so destructive, and we can always diagnose it in others easier than we see it in ourselves. I'm vaguely suspicious that a lot of my affectations are obscure flexes that only make sense in my own brain; but I'm glad I missed a lot of the ones my friends have fallen for in housing or careers.
Copypasting a comment I made the last time someone asked for a primer on Girard, pinging @TheDag as well:
The two episodes with Rene Girard on the podcast called Entitled Opinions are really good. He goes over memetic desire as well as his concept of scapegoating. I found everything he had to say very interesting and I listened to the two episodes two years ago but still think of them often.
The first episode: https://entitledopinions.stanford.edu/ren-girard-why-we-want-what-we-want
The second episode: https://entitledopinions.stanford.edu/ren-girard-ritual-sacrifice-and-scapegoat
Thank you for putting in the effort to link these! Will definitely get on listening to them.
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https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/03/30/i-see-satan-fall-like-lightning-rene-girard/
Charles Haywood gives a decent summary and review here. He narrates all his reviews, too, so you can listen rather than read if you prefer.
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I asked the same question about Girard on here a while back, only response I got was to look into Wanting by Luke Burgis. He was on a podcast I’m familiar with and he got me interested so I should probably get to that.
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