Texts of Persecution
Rene Girard identified what he called “texts of persecution,” or documents that recount phenomena of collective violence from the standpoint of persecutors—for instance, accounts of lynchings in the early twentieth century, or the medieval poet Guillaume de Machaut’s story Judgement of the King of Navarre, which blames the Jews for the Black Death and describes their mass murder—and compares these texts to ancient myths (like Oedipus), where Girard finds striking similarities. Both myths and texts of persecution hide collective violence because they have been written from the point of view of the persecutors. History has been written by the victors, not the victims. Girard did his own form of deconstruction of these texts by deconstructing the mythological structures that obscured the hidden truth of violence underneath. To paraphrase Girard: if you arrive at a crime scene covered with bleach and clear attempts to cover one’s tracks, you can be sure that a crime happened—even if direct evidence of the crime itself can never be fully recovered.
Mimetic Desire
Mimetic desire is desire according to another, or desire according to a model. Imitation is the force that shapes human desire. People desire things because someone else—a model—did first. When he was in early twenties, René Girard got his first glimpse into the structure of desire. During his university studies in France, he fell in love. After a short and intense period of courtship, he settled down into a stable relationship with his girlfriend. Then things changed in an instant. His girlfriend asked him if he wanted to get married. Right away, he experienced a decrease in desire. He quickly backed off. It wasn’t long before he ended the relationship. She accepted it, went her own way, and began dating other men. Then, suddenly, he was drawn back to her again. He noticed something that he found curious—and troubling. The more she denied herself to him, the more he wanted her. It was as if her desire for him somehow affected his desire for her. “I suddenly realized that she was both object and mediator for me—some kind of model,” he said. He became reattracted to her not because he suddenly saw some new quality in her that he hadn’t seen in her before; he became reattracted to her because she denied herself to him. She was modeling to him what he should want. Girard wouldn’t fully grasp what was happening until many years later when he saw this same dynamic playing out through human history and in current events. But even then, in his short romance, he saw that there was more to desire than most people believe—especially the hidden role of a model. The advertising and fashion industries have known this for decades. The creative agencies behind Superbowl commercials don’t simply show us the things they want us to buy. They almost always show us other people wanting the things they want us to buy. Apple’s iconic “1984” commercial doesn’t tout the technical merits of the new Apple computer; it shows a beautiful blonde athlete throwing a sledgehammer through the face of a man representing conformity (“Big Brother”). The woman in the commercial is a model—she makes it more likely that viewers will now want to battle conformity, too. (Of course, buying an Apple computer is the best way to do that.) People choose computers, food, and fashion at least as much with their mimetic brains, or imitative brains, as with their rational brains. Consider craft beer: did millions of amateur beer drinkers decide, almost simultaneously, that I.P.A.’s are (obviously) better than good Belgian ales? Not only do I disagree, but I don’t buy their illusion of autonomy. But these are just things. Far more important are the deeper mimetic desires to be a certain way—the desire for moral positions, recognition, spouses, schools, job titles and dreams. We’re immersed in it. 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, 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. Tim, a university freshman chooses to major in accounting because his friend (who seems like he has it all together) wants to be an accounting major. When he realizes later in life that he is miserable doing other peoples’ taxes—long after his model is gone—the mimetic nature of his desire to be an accounting major is revealed. Imitating a model is not dangerous if the desire is for something that is abundant and sharable—drinking a mass-produced wine, watching Game of Thrones, or getting into a large state school with a 90% acceptance rate. But things get more complicated when we imitate the desire for objects that are scarce and can’t easily be shared. According to economists, that’s a lot of things. For more a detailed, illustrated guide visit the page on author Luke Burgis’s website on Mimetic Desire 101.
Prophet of Envy: Conversations with René Girard – edited by Cynthia Haven
Prophet of Envy: Conversations with René Girard is a bold new book that contains a carefully curated and well-edited collection of interviews that René Girard had given over the course of his life. Some of them are scholarly, others are fiery. All are tantalizing. Some of these interviews were formerly behind paywalls on obscure websites and in other hard-to-find places. Cynthia Haven has brought together some of the best work of Girard in the format that he liked best: a dialogical encounter where his ideas can be wrestled with and worked out in the company of others. The book contains: Introduction: Socrates in the Digital Age Cynthia 1 “There Are Real Victims Behind the Text” Discussion 2 Opera & Myth Philippe Godefroid 3 Technological Power in the Post-Sacrificial World Scott Walter 4 The Logic of the Undecidable Thomas F. Bertonneau 5 Violence, Difference, Sacrifice Rebecca Adams 6 “Revelation Is Dangerous. It’s the Spiritual Equivalent of Nuclear Power.” Michel Treguer 7 “What Is Happening Today Is Mimetic Rivalry on a Global Scale.” Henri Tincq 8 “How Should Mimetic Theory Be Applied?” Maria Stella Barberi 9 Shakespeare: Mimesis and Desire Robert Pogue Harrison 10 Why Do We Fight? How Do We Stop? Robert Pogue Harrison 11 “War Is Everywhere” Elisabeth Lévy 12 “I have always tried to think inside an evolutionary framework.” Pierpaolo Antonello and João Cezar de Castro Rocha 13 The J’Accuse of René Girard: The Audacious Ideas of a Great Thinker Giulio Meotti 14 A Passion Born of Rivalry Mark R. Anspach and Laurence Tacou Conversations with René Girard.i 15 Apocalyptic Thinking after 9/11 Robert Doran 16 “I am first and foremost a social scientist.” Pedro Sette-Câmara, Alvaro Velloso de Carvalho, and Olavo de Carvalho 17 “Christianity Will Be Victorious, But Only in Defeat” Cynthia L. Haven 18 Postscript: “René Girard Never Played the Great Man,” Says Girard Biographer Cynthia L. Haven
Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life — by Luke Burgis
WANTING is a large-scale exposition of mimetic theory and its practical applications, especially the positive potential of mimesis, written by entrepreneur, author, and professor of business Luke Burgis. This book is the most ambitious and engaging explanation of mimetic theory for someone new to Girard’s thought. The book has a wide, sweeping range, moving from an interview with Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel in the introduction to recounting the story of Zappos.com and the rivalry between Ferruccio Lamborghini and Enzo Ferrari to a three-Michelin-star chef Sebastien Bras, who renounced his stars and told the Michelin Guide not to come back to his restaurant or include him in the guide. The book is totally unsummarizable since it covers such broad ground and weaves together narrative with more academic explanations of mimetic theory. The first half of this book covers mimetic desire, distortions of desire (and objects), rivalries, conflict, and the scapegoating mechanism; the second part of the book deals with the transformation of desire. The second half of the book focuses on one can be anti-mimetic, or counteract and resist the forces of negative or destructive mimetic desire and thereby live a more fulfilling life. Learn more about Wanting.
Apocalypse
The word “apocalypse” in its original usage simply means unveiling. The book of Revelation in the Christian bible means an unveiling of things to come. The apocalypse has traditionally been associated with some violent ending to the world as we know it. In Girardian mimetic theory, the “apocalypse” is not something caused by God but caused by human beings through their own violence. The escalation of mimetic rivalries and the decreased power of the scapegoat mechanism in modernity (because it has been drained of its power through the revelation of the crucifixion) means that there are no “braking mechanisms” on violence. In this environment, an apocalyptic type of violence that wipes out all of humanity is possible. In short, an apocalypse is a form of mimetic violence that is escalated to the extreme: the scenario captured in Girard’s last book, Battling to the End.
Compassion Or Apocalypse?: A Comprehensible Guide to the Thought of Rene Girard – by James Warren
Apocalyptic Future, Warren’s written a gem, a much-needed “comprehensive” guide to Girard’s thought. It does an excellent job of starting “in the beginning,” with Genesis, and moving all the way through what Girard worried would be a man-made apocalypse. The table of contents is sweeping: Part I: MIMESIS Chapter 1: Mimesis and DesireChapter 2: Mimesis in Genesis 2 and 3Chapter 3: Scandal and Desire in the Gospels Part II: THE SCAPEGOAT Chapter 4: Sacrifice, Founding Murder, and the Scapegoat MechanismChapter 5: Mimesis, Rivalry, and Rounding Murder in GenesisChapter 6: The Primitive Sacred and the Hebrew Scriptures in Travail Chapter 7: MythologyChapter 8: The Gospel Revelation of Myth and Murder Part III: Compassion of Apocalypse Chapter 9: The Gerasene DemoniacChapter 10: The Apostle PaulChapter 11: Paradigm for a New Humanity Chapter 12: Apocalyptic Future and the Contemporary Situation Check out Compassion or Apocalypse on Amazon.
The Mimetic Summit Announced
This organization was formed by a group of over one hundred entrepreneurs, hustlers, college students, moms and dads, victims, victimizers, theologians, athletes, creative professionals (and a few academics) who believe that the thought of Girard is of the utmost importance for the future of our world but that is has been confined, even quarantined, by the academic community and used for political purposes rather than real application with a positive impact on peoples’ lives. We are organizing the first Mimetic Summit in late 2021 to bring together all of these people–along with every other enthusiast or person with a budding interest in Girardian theory–to discuss the most important questions…but most importantly to do something about them. We hope you’ll join us at coming mimetic Summit.
Mirror Neurons
Mirror neurons are neurons in the brain that “fire” when a person merely observes an action, mimicking the way that neurons would fire in the brain as if the person were actually performing that action. Mirror neurons were first discovered in maqaque monkeys in by Dr. Giacomo Rizzolatti of the University of Parma, Italy, during his team’s studies in the 1980’s and 90’s. One day, when one of the graduate students walked into a research room with an ice cream where a maqaque monkey was hooked up to a machine that measured his brain activity, he was shocked to see the monkey’s brain imaging immediately light up as if the monkey were holding and eating an ice cream. This accidentally discovery led to the eventually identification of the now controversial idea of “mirror neurons,” which have provided biological support to Girard’s mimetic theory. Others have taken their research a step further and shown that the brains of young babies are “mimetic” in a way that goes beyond mere “actions.” Dr. Andrew Meltzoff showed that babies as young as 18- months-old were able to infer the desires of the people around them. In his study, an adult in the presence of an infant “accidently” failed to pull the end off of a toy dumbbell, acting out a game in which the adult clearly wants to pull the weights off the dumbbell but can’t seem to do it. When given the opportunity to play with the dumbbell, the infant would pull the end off of the dumbbell rather than mimic the failed action. Meltzoff’s study had a clear finding: the infants weren’t imitating actions; they were imitating desire. We only get better at it as we get older.
Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel is one of the world’s most well-respected entrepreneurs and business investors. He is the founder and CEO of PayPal, and was one of the earliest investors in Facebook. He is highly regarded as a thought leader on the topics of business, leadership, and innovation. He is also an outspoken disciple of the late Stanford sociologist, Rene Girard. During his time at Stanford, Thiel came under the influence of Rene Girard’s mimetic theory and discovery of cultural scapegoating, which fundamentally shaped Thiel’s understanding of human nature and business. After Stanford, these core insights gave Thiel an uncanny ability to spot business opportunities where others saw none. In fact, his Girardian outlook helped him become one of the earliest investors in Facebook. Throughout his career, he has maintained a close connection to his intellectual mentor. In his 2014 book on startups, Zero to One, Thiel describes a moment of mimetic enlightenment as he was building the company PayPal. He noticed how unclear job responsibilities were arousing internal rivalries and infighting among his employees. Therefore, using another Girardian insight, the power of distinctions and prohibitions, he made employees responsible for one thing, and one thing only. Result: the infighting ceased, which restored the company culture. Applying these principles across industries, Thiel continues to be one of the most effective investors and fluent practitioners of Girardian thought in the modern business world.
The Fyre Festival and Violent Mimesis
On April 27, 2017, the first attendees of the now-infamous Fyre Festival landed in the Bahamas. They expected a weekend of luxury and pampering, and to potentially rub shoulders with Instagram influencers such as Kendall Jenner and Hailey Baldwin. Instead, they were met with chaos. There were no luxury hotels or gourmet meals, just Lord of the Flies-style chaos. The festival quickly became an online joke under the hashtag #dumpsterfyre. It has since been the subject of two documentaries and numerous columns. The crazy thing about the Fyre Festival is that it was never going to work. The organizers never had enough money, experience or time to pull off an event of the magnitude they had promised. Yet over 5,000 people signed up after seeing their favorite models and influencers post about it. Why would rational adults such a thing? The answer: Mimesis. What is mimesis? Mimesis comes from the Greek word mīmeisthai, “to imitate”. Mimetic theory is a theory that explains human desire, and ultimately human behavior, with a very simple and very paradigm breaking observation: desire may feel like it comes from some objective place deep inside of us- but that is actually not true. We desire what we desire because we are imitating someone else who desired that first. René Girard is the founder of mimetic theory. He made his breakthrough after a break-up, when he realized that the more his ex dated, the more he desired her. He realized that her desire for him affected his desire for her, as did her view of herself. When she viewed herself as someone desirable to date, he wanted to date her. And thus the mimetic theory was born. Where is mimesis in my life The short answer is: Everywhere. The longer answer is that you are born with certain biological urges, but not necessarily desire. You eat, drink, seek shelter, etc because your body tells you to. However, everything else you want, you’ve learned to want through a process that Girard named, “mimesis.” This started when you were a baby. You didn’t have a biological urge to develop language; you began to speak because you heard your parents speaking. In fact, you imitated everything they did, from facial expressions to eye movements to words they didn’t mean to teach you when they stubbed their toe. Babies are even more obvious. Pre-verbal children will spend the months before they begin speaking imitating others’ noises until they develop language. They also will imitate facial movements, and even follow their parent’s gaze. This is because we are hard-wired to learn what we want from others. Want to put this to the test? Anyone who has ever spent time with multiple children and singular toy should recognize mimesis at work. Say a doll with no clothes and ratty hair is lying on the ground, ignored. If a parent picks it up and begins to act as though they are having fun with it, the children are likely to drop whatever they are holding and demand a turn with the doll. Why should I care about this? Two reasons, really. The first is that it helps us to know ourselves. Mimesis helps us understand our moral stances, spousal requirements, dreams, and so much more. If we understand that our desires come from who we are imitating, we can influence our desires by choosing different models. This gives us self-knowledge and helps us become better versions of ourselves. But it also helps us with a darker, deeply urgent problem that we all face. Mimesis doesn’t just explain desire. It explains violence. Think about it. If you imitate other people’s desires, you are likely to be drawn into rivalries with them, the same way little children will fight for the same toy, even if there are plenty of other toys in the room. Humans are incredibly prone to violence, and this shows up in our personal lives just as much as it does in our political arena. If you want to stop fighting with your partner, or repair relationships with family, or find ways out of what might feel like impossible conflicts in business, the insights of Rene Girard about mimesis, scapegoating, and violence can help you negate the conflict. To learn more about how to click here to read more: Learn more about Mimesis