Memetics & Attention · Theory
Mimetic Desire (René Girard)
Girard's claim: we learn what to want by imitating others. The triangle of desire, mimetic rivalry, escalating conflict and the scapegoat mechanism, and how these ideas explain fashion, status games, bubbles and Peter Thiel's thinking about competition.
Step 1 of 6 · Overview30 min read ·
Key idea
Prereqs: Memes: Dawkins to the internet. Next: Virality: why things spread. Sources: Girard's *Deceit, Desire and the Novel* (1961) and *Violence and the Sacred* (1972), Luke Burgis's *Wanting* (2021), Thiel's *Zero to One*.Next: 1. The triangle