By Frank DeVito, Public Discourse.
The work of René Girard has captivated intellectuals for decades, and for good reason. His theories of mimesis, mimetic rivalry, scapegoating, and the role of myth and religion in building culture offer powerful insight into human history and behavior. But as Fr. Elias Carr makes clear in his excellent new book I Came to Cast Fire, Girard’s understandings of mimetic rivalry, and particularly, of the human tendency to scapegoat, are not merely abstract conversations for academics. Mimetic rivalry and the scapegoat mechanism are a given in our current social problems.
What is mimetic desire, that core human behavior to which Girard attributes the cycle of human rivalry and violence, the tendency to scapegoat, the emergence of the sacred, and the creation of culture? Mimetic (or imitative) desire begins with human needs and especially with wants. Fr. Carr notes that while “needs are grounded in biology, wants are influenced strongly by other people who model desires.” The basis of the human problem Girard identifies is simple: most of the things we desire, “whether it be a person, relationship, object, experience, or feeling,” are imitative. We form the desire for these things through our (more or less conscious) observation of others desiring or possessing them. This explains the power of advertising (when we see enough people using something, we find ourselves wanting that thing) as well as the power of celebrity (we want the type of house, car, clothing, or woman that the rich, famous, and powerful man possesses).