# Mimetic Desire ## The Idea in Brief We don't want things spontaneously—we want them because other people want them. René Girard called this *mimetic desire*: humans learn what to want by imitating models. The line between us and our desires is always curved, bent by the gravitational pull of others. If you don't know your models, they're probably wreaking havoc in your life. --- ## Key Concepts ### Models of Desire Models are people who show us what's worth wanting. We don't choose our desires from some inner chamber of authentic preference—we absorb them from others. The colleague whose success irritates you, the lifestyle you're chasing, the goals that feel urgent without knowing why—all symptoms of unexamined mimesis. Models are most powerful when hidden. If you want someone passionate about something, they have to believe the desire is their own. The illusion of autonomy is how mimesis works. ### Celebristan and Freshmanistan Girard distinguished two worlds where models operate differently: **Celebristan** contains models outside our social sphere—dead philosophers, billionaires, celebrities. Because there's no direct competition possible, we imitate them freely and openly. No rivalry, no threat. **Freshmanistan** contains models inside our world—colleagues, neighbours, friends. Proximity breeds rivalry. We admire them secretly because admitting we want to be like them feels embarrassing. The closer the model, the more intense the competition. Rivalry is a function of proximity. This explains why office politics gets vicious and family feuds run deep. ### Cycle 1 and Cycle 2 Mimetic desire tends to move in two patterns: **Cycle 1** is destructive: mimetic desire leading to rivalry and conflict, running on scarcity thinking. They have something I don't; there isn't room for both of us. Each turn intensifies the conflict. **Cycle 2** is constructive: mimetic desire uniting people in shared pursuit of a common good. Abundance thinking. People start wanting things they couldn't imagine wanting before, and help others go further. A negative cycle is disrupted when two people, through empathy, stop seeing each other as rivals. ### The Romantic Lie The story people tell about why they make choices: because it fits their personal preferences, because they see objective qualities, because they simply saw it and wanted it. This is self-delusion. Desire requires models who endow things with value merely because they want them. --- ## Implications **In self-knowledge:** Ask where your desires actually come from. Name your models. The colleague, the influencer, the friend whose life you keep comparing to yours—these are your hidden models. **In organisations:** The health of an organisation is proportional to the speed truth travels within it. Mimetic games, hidden rivalries, and status competition all slow truth down. **In markets:** Desire is not a function of data. It's a function of other people's desires. In bubbles and crashes, models multiply and desire spreads faster than rational analysis can process. **In leadership:** Leaders are always shaping what others want, whether intentionally or not. The choice isn't whether to be a model but what kind of model to be. Transcendent leaders have models outside the systems they're in. **In conflict:** The more people fight, the more they resemble each other. Choose enemies wisely—you become like them. When identity becomes tied to defeating a mimetic rival, escape means destroying your own reason for being. --- ## Sources - [[Wanting]] — The core framework; Girard's mimetic theory applied to business, psychology, and life - [[Alchemy]] — Attacks the Romantic Lie that desire and preference are rational and autonomous - [[The Most Important Thing]] — Contrarian investing requires escaping the mimetic pull of market consensus