Reflexivity
A two-way feedback loop in which perceptions affect an environment and the environment then affects perceptions. In a mimetic rivalry, neither party can act without affecting the perceptions and desires of the other. Financial manager and philanthropist George Soros made the principle of reflexivity a key to his investment strategy by noticing that financial markets operate on the principle of reflexivity.
External Mediation
When a person imitates the desires of someone separated by time or space or social sphere and there is little chance of the person ever coming into contact with their model. In external mediation, the model mediates desire from outside, or external to, the world of the subject. Also called Celebristan.
Celebristan
The world of external mediation.
Freshmenistan
The world of internal mediation.
Internal Mediation
When a person lives within the same time, place, or social sphere as their model and the likelihood of coming into contact with the model is high. In internal mediation, the model mediates desire from inside, or internal to, the world of the subject. With the social and economic flattening of the world, more desire becomes internally mediated as models come from within our social worlds. Also called Freshmanistan.
Mimetic Desire Examples
Mimetic desire can be understood as an abstract concept, but it doesn’t really hit home until we see it in concrete events in the world around us—and in our own life. A young girl posts a selfie to Instagram. She’s beaming next to her new boyfriend at a sushi restaurant. Her ex, who she hasn’t heard from in months, ex starts texting her the next day. A college guy with a new girlfriend introduces her to every guy he knows, secretly hoping that they’ll want her, too. When he senses that they don’t, he begins to doubt that he made the right choice. Five year-old Caleb finds a shiny red toy dump truck in the corner of his classroom that none of the other kids seemed to care about. As soon he expresses an interest in it, there’s an all-out war. Everyone wants to play with the cool new toy. A university freshman chooses to major in accounting because his friend (who seems like he has it all together) really wants to be an accountant. For the job security, of course.
Mediation of Desire
What models of desire do—or the process through which desire takes shape from the relationship between a subject and a model. Models are mediators of desire, which means that they always stand between the person imitating them and the objects of desire that they model for that person. There is no way for an imitator to reach an object of desire without going through the model. This makes the model an object and in some cases a scandal (which means “stumbling block”) to the fulfillment of desire.
Double Bind
When a model notices that someone is imitating him and takes the imitator as his own model in return. The more that each party is drawn into mimesis and doubles down on the rivalry, the stronger the mimetic bond between them becomes. Each side is bound to the other (the double bind) because each side takes the other as a model. You could think of a mimetic double bind like two atoms or molecules that are bound together because of the way their energies are oriented.[1] [1] The term double bind comes from the work of anthropologist Gregory Bateson, known for his theory that schizophrenia originates in dual and contradictory messages.
Discernment
A process for making decisions that includes but goes beyond rational analysis. It comes from the Latin word meaning to distinguish one thing from another. Discernment involves a power of perception, tacit knowledge, and ability to “read” desires. Because desires lack scientific and objective criteria to judge, discernment is required to choose between which desires to feed and which desires to starve.
Stoicism and Mimetic Desire
American cultural lumineers like Tim Ferriss (stoicism is “an ideal operating system for thriving in high-stress environments”) and Nassim Nicholas Taleb (“A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking”) have embraced and promoted the philosophy in their work. Ryan Holiday built a brand around it. The high priests of Silicon Valley like Jack Dorsey (Twitter), Kevin Rose (Digg), and Phil Libin (Evernote) promote Stoicism as a transformative wellness practice. So how does stoicism relate to mimetic theory? First, stoicism is a practical philosophy of desire. It equips followers to deal with unexpected events, people, and passions. Stoicism seems to grasp that desire is social in nature, but assumes that people can basically learn to become indifferent to desire through stoic practices. The first century Stoic philosopher Epictetus—arguably the most influential late Stoic, who is still influencing minds today as he did in the Roman empire—recommended indifference to desire as part of his practical guidance for life. “If you fail in your desire, you are unfortunate,” he wrote. “If you experience what you would rather avoid you are unhappy. As for desire, suspend it completely for now.” According to Epictetus, if desire causes you trouble (and it inevitably will), it’s better to do away with it than grapple with it. But doing away with desire is not an option. To suspend it would be to suspend a core constituent of the human soul. Epictetus is asking the impossible. We are homo desiderius—the creature who desires. We can desire not to desire, but the circularity would make us dizzy. The second way that stoicism related to mimetic theory is this: stoicism provides an incomplete answer to the question of desire which mimetic theory completes. The incompleteness of stoicism can be grasped by seeing that desire is mimetic and therefore not something that can be “thought” away. Even solitary hermit monks have desires because they are social beings in the world and are still in relationship with others, even if they are separated by physical distance. Stoicism does not address the fundamental question of what to do about mimetic desire—that is, about desires that are not able to be extinguished but must be grappled with as living, dynamic realities in human life. Third, and lastly, stoicism intuits the nature of rivalry and provides practical guidance to finding tranquility amidst a world constantly in flux. In our liquid modernity, stoic thinking offers some respite from the winds of change by allowing people to sink down into a deeper layer of psychology that is less mimetic and therefore less prone to disturbance. Stoicism counsels taking specific measures to decrease or even empty one’s self of desire. But the “emptying” of desire is never enough. Once we become aware of mimetic desire, we can channel it for good. Our ability to want things beyond our basic psychological drives, like meaningful work, is one of the most important things that differentiates us from animals. Intentional desire is what propels us to create a better world.