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What People Are Really Doing When They Play Hard to Get
It’s revealing to think of mimetic desire along a continuum. Certain people and organizational cultures are more prone to mimesis than others. And one thing is clear, on a societal level: any society in which people are no longer struggling with scarcity but coping with abundance will undergo an explosion of mimetic desire. In this universe of desi... See more
read.lukeburgis.com • Mimetic Desire 101 - Anti-Mimetic—A Field Guide to Mimetic Desire
Sixian added
“Girard discovered that most of what we desire is mimetic (mi-met-ik) or imitative, not intrinsic. Humans learn—through imitation—to want the same things other people want, just as they learn how to speak the same language and play by the same cultural rules. Imitation plays a far more pervasive role in our society than anyone had ever openly ackno... See more
Luke Burgis • Just a moment...
sari added
Sixian and added
We have instinctual responses to help us choose the objects that meet our most basic needs—when we’re hungry, we seek food; when we’re cold, we want warmth. But there is an entire universe of desires for which we have no instinctual basis for choosing one object or another. For these objects of desire, Girard saw that the most important factor in
... See moreLuke Burgis • Why Everyone Wants the Same Things
Ilana Ettinger added
Because desire is mimetic, people are naturally drawn to want what others want. ‘Two desires converging on the same object are bound to clash,’ writes Girard. This means that mimetic desire often leads people into unnecessary competition and rivalry with one another in an infernal game of status anxiety.
Aeon • How to Know What You Really Want | Psyche Guides
Stuart Evans added
Mimetic desire is the unwritten, unacknowledged system behind visible goals.6 The more we bring that system to light, the less likely it is that we’ll pick and pursue the wrong goals.
Luke Burgis • Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life
Luke Burgis: The Power of Mimetic Desire [The Knowledge Project Ep. #138]
The Knowledge Projectfs.blog![Thumbnail of Luke Burgis: The Power of Mimetic Desire [The Knowledge Project Ep. #138]](https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-storage-prod.startupy.com/media/images/thumbnails/curation/742b1d6b/thumbnail.png)
Juan Orbea and added
The assumption that my desires are all my own—this story that I tell myself—is what the French social scientist René Girard calls “The Romantic Lie.” The Lie is that I want things independently, or that I choose all of the objects of my desire out of some secret desire chamber in my heart. I know a good thing when I see it; I know what’s desirable ... See more
read.lukeburgis.com • Mimetic Desire 101 - Anti-Mimetic—A Field Guide to Mimetic Desire
Sixian added