René Girard's Mimetic Theory - Lecture 2

Mimetic desire can be separated in:

• a desire to experience (physical desire)
• a desire to be (metaphysical desire). We chase objects for what they say about us on for the fullness of being that we expect them to confer upon us.

ex: We may chase a sexual partner for how they make us feel or for the social status of being with them. We may start a company for the thrill of the struggle or because we want to be like like the Silicon Valley tech bros. 

The balance of the 2 will vary from person to person, but pride and ambition are strongly correlated with metaphysical desire.

Metaphysical desire is focused on our identity, our ego, our spirit ... the core of what we are. This itself can be broken down into 3 components:

1. Reality. We want our existence to be observed and noticed by others. What really matters is not the physical experience but what others think it's real.
2. Persistence. We want our identities to last through time. We are obsessed with achieving some immortality. 
3. Self-sufficiency: Deals with having the power of the social realm to fulfil our thirsts. It's what Nietzsche calls "the will to power". It has a lot to do with domination over others.

We crave objects because other people we look up are associated with those objects: a celebrity, a parent, a colleague etc... The faulty logic being that our acquisition of the object will grant us the same sense of being as our role-model. 

Desire is not a straight line from subject to object, but a triangular path to object through the role model. 

Not all our actions will be motivated by metaphysical desire, but out of the possible motivations ... it is the strongest. In commercial terms it means products that focus on it will command the most value. 

It explains the success of branding, the celebrity culture and consumerism as a whole. 

• Malleability. They are highly dependent on our mediators. If I grew up with a Don Juan father I may seek superficial relationship. 
• Power. The more we get motivated by it the more we loose our agency. The tulip buying mania, the 2001 dotcom crash etc.
• Deceitful: We are oblivious that we are confusing an object for a state of being. 
• Ungovernable: It is not ruled by reason. Reason becomes a spoke-person to our spirit. Not the source of action, but its justification.