Symbolic Violence and the Other in Cross-Cultural Field

The following article explores the problem of symbolic violence as a cultural phenomenon. The education, meaning "leading from", can lead us in various directions; some of them presuppose a dialogical communication between people identifying themselves and others through different symbolical matrixes. Meanwhile, other directions could bring us to the edge of conflict and misunderstanding. Alongside real physical violence, there was always symbolism that preceded real violence that facilitated it, escalated it, or prevented it. Studying Rene Girard's analyses of sacred violence, we come to the conclusion that the Monstrous Other, the arbitrary object of sacrificial violence, retains his consolidating function in contemporary cultures. Contemporarily speaking, terrorism is the principle of evil and, as Jean Baudrillard points out, our culture claims to be positive or "sterile white" in certain ways forms a demand for terror and violence turning the Other into the Evil Other. The solution for overcoming breaks in symbolic communication is proposed by both secular and religious symbolic matrixes. However, the object of our desire must be lifted up high enough to consolidate instead of separating by mimetic competition.