Summary of text [comment] page 39

[I do not know whether Rene Girard ever imagined the possibility that the mimetic rival could be pure projection.

Notably, this could account for an odd yet pivotal detail in his scenario-rich hypothesis. At the zenith of the mimetic crisis, the rivals-in-conflict join one another and turn their accumulated anger against a scapegoat.  The united rivals-in-conflict unite in attacking the scapegoat.  The scapegoat gets the blame for the crisis in the first place. Plus, the scapegoat’s sacrifice appears to resolve the crisis and bring (temporary) relief.

Girard views these features of the mimetic crisis as natural properties of the crisis itself, even though it is hard to imagine two contenders suddenly joining forces.

However, if one rival is the projection of the other, in the same manner that think^anti-object is a projection of think^pro-object, then the conflict dramatizes a sovereign^infra religion in battle with the demons that arise with the unintended consequences of its own social constructions.  The battle is resolved at the moment that blame is laid upon the scapegoat.  The projection is reified.  The scapegoat is sacrificed.

Think^pro-object is proven right.  Think^anti-object is proven real.  The scapegoat is a corpse.]