Are you truly buying because all the good intellectuals are buying? or Simply because you're convinced? Indeed, you may be convinced but of what exactly.... In other words what makes it so convincing for you to buy the book? And last but not least, which one of his work did you finally buy? I may answer for you. None. Though this is simply a slight intellectual challenge to let you move your brain instead of your mind.
This is incredible... finally someone explained Mimetic Desire in a straight forward way. I tried to read Hidden Things and it's amazing but it is super densely packed, It mentions a bunch of literary references from Don Quijote to Marcel Proust and the Bible which I've never read to be honest. Of course I wanna read those and go back to Hidden Things eventually but for now , this is a nice clear explanation of the concept. Thank you.
I love Things Hidden and its his best work (in my humble opinion), but it's a terrible introduction to his theories. "A Theatre of Envy" and "Deceit, Desire and the Novel" are much better books if you're not familiar to his ideas.
@@fiilisboa Thanks for the observation. It actually helped me find a book called "The Girard reader" which should actually give a fair introduction to his entire work, while remaining a bit more accessible than the books themselves.
Fun fact: The Girard Reader, an overview of his entire work, was actually co-written by Girard himself! I recommend it as an introduction to Girard, written by himself. And after that, I would say his "Violence and the Sacred" is also perhaps his most accessible book since it requires less literary and mythological knowledge from the reader.
Nicely done! I wish Girard wrote as simply and elegantly as this presentation. Of course, this is only one of Girard operating principles in his whole theory.
I got this condition pretty bad. I was dating a woman on and off for 10yrs, and it was never really going anywhere. We broke up in the last 3 years but remained good friends. In that time I had no girlfriends and she had no boyfriends, and I was happy in life. Then one day she said she had a boyfriend. At that point I suffered full on break-up stress and grief, as fast as flipping a switch. I fought really hard to get her back. After a few days when my brain could get a word in between my gut wrenching emotions, I puzzled over my behaviour as I knew I was happier not being with her. Hence how I stumbled across mimetic desire. She's not good for me at all, I'm happier as a friend, but I wanted her back so badly because someone else saw value in her. Brains can be pretty self-harming. And it harms others too. I wonder how many people are murdered over this condition. Thankfully I was able to stop the emotion overriding the logic, and analyse the problem. Many don't and end up killing the partner.
One thing I don’t understand: How does the person we model develop their desire? Somebody has to have been the original, or first, person to desire a specific thing, without imitating someone else.
Fizza Rafique And who was Adam modeling? I supposed his desire was in line with God’s will, but then he was moved to follow Satan’s incentive? In “I See Satan Fall Like Lightening”, Girard says that mimetic contagion is the same as Satan.
@@cheddarpuff I think Adam was modelling "Hawa" or Eve. Eve was the one who desired the forbidden fruit as Satan had made her believe that it would give them eternal life. I feel like Satan is the root of all evil desires. Evil as in the ones that will cause violence and conflicts.
There are a limited number of things put in front of us. Some are inherently more desirable and get chosen by the people who have the most power. But the point is that not everyone would desire those items if it weren't for the mimetic effect. We are varied by nature but cluster due to the need for social cleaving. Our desires cluster in kind.
"Man is the creature who does not know what to desire. He turns up to others in order to make up his mind." Rene Girard's work is important in decoding the world we live in, adding a layer of perspective on the nature of our desires, the scapegoating mechanism of solving human conflict and the importance of treating literature as revealing the condensed, hidden truth since the foundations of the world.
@ImitatioVideo Did you once post a video depiciting Girard's explanation of the history of sacrifice/scapegoating using similar animation to this video?
Peoples personalities are collages of stimuli they either associate with, or associate with success. You can buy a book on it or you can drop acid and meditate on it either way itll get you to the same place. You should drop acid and meditate on it. It will boost your confidence over reading someone elses ideas. Then read their ideas and compare the two like youre equals rather than a student
Well, it's rather tautological: for "we" are ourselves mimetic creatures so autonomous choice cannot exist outside the mimetic network, as we depend on it for our very constitution. So any autonomous choice is always already embedded inside a mimetic structure.
@@stephanlittger9471 I sort of agree with you but I would say there's a way to get out of the Matrix, if you will. And once you're out, you're free to explore your unique desires without any imitation factor (so the OP's question is moot). Although it's only through exploring your own desires that you can escape.
So was Rene Girard aware of James George Frazer's work? Because I can see similarities in Rene's work with Frazer's upon a cursory glance. And Frazer was an anthropologist who wrote the book The Golden Bough.
This is a two minute A-bomb. My initial thoughts: Girard is giving us a half-truth, although it's the important half (currently). But some things are inherently more desirable than others. Think about real estate. Imitation happens naturally and is unavoidable ONLY UNTIL we get to know ourselves (which most people never do). The ending of the video is loaded, with the "Cervantes" reference juxtaposed with the French pastry shop. I'll attempt to deconstruct later.
@@justanotherother I think his point is that real estate is an asset/capital, so it more easily translates into common and greater needs like housing and food. Some desires prevail because they reward those who want it, and other, more useless desires are basically removed because of selective pressure. I've never read Girard, though.
This seems to apply more to the material sense of things and not necessarily the emotional? We are all product of our environment, so is that the whole "imitation" aspect? Plus mainstream media and advertising have to have somewhat of a play in this theory since a "choice"/product more advertised surely will be "chosen" more. What about the limited availability of "choices" that others may have more access too i.e. living in a smaller populated country or living in a country with heavy religious backgrounds? .....idk seems like alot of holes in this.....Just came across this theory and trying to understand it more....
The point is that we play right into mainstream media's hands. It's imitation that keeps our desires limited enough so that MM can manipulate. If there weren't so many of us wanting to own the same car or live in the same Florida beach house, MM would have no power.
Who or how do you imitate a higher functioning successful person if you are isolated disadvantaged and raised by abusive alcoholics. Finding a mentor to imitate is important
You don't always imitate a higher functioning successful person. You can imitate your abusive alcoholic father. You can imitate your drug addicted mother. Also note: Girard talks about STRUCTURES IN LITERATURE. Taking this concept and applying it to real life may be useful in some respects (as the video highlights) but it is primarily useful for analysis of classic literature. As, for example, Eve Sedgwick has done in "Between Men" with her concept of homosocial desire (another LITERARY concept used for characters and the structures of their relations in literature).
I'm sure there's a "natural sciences" explanation to the origin of this phenomenon in humans. So what would the physics, chemistry and biology behind this phenomenon be? Maybe this is something that originated even before humans evolved sufficiently to be able to synthesize a distinctive " human culture". Probably in the period when the precursor to sapiens in the "homo" genuses existed - erectus, australo etc etc. I wouldn't be surprised if this thread stretches really really far back into history.
I’d assume the biology behind it is like everything else in the animal kingdom. Mainly to use one’s social landscape to their advantage so they can solidify their chances of mating and security.
Survival or social participation (human experience) will to learn or copy core cultural assumptions & behaviours as a masking self-presentation or thought-sytem of guidance and direction within the family, clan, or social identified group or ideology. Much of this operates beneath and prior to any reflective evaluation as 'making a self' to fit and adapt to (our) learned world. In A Course in Miracles the above is an aspect of ego. Its sacrificial nature is masked by gaining a world of limited controls against fear of total loss, that pertain to the split mind of a self-separation, for the masking self-image is made, not created, and as a source of self or guidance and protection, operates as filters, rules and blocks to a felt quality of being for which we have no language but the expression of unselfconscious joy - the language of relational being as distinct from relationships as contracts to get from or get rid of (onto). The core narratives for the 'model' being emulated or followed draw on mythic archetypes as cultural variants and mutations of reiterating Separation traumas projected into victim and victimisers as self-justifications for attack along with grievance as the result and subsequent justification for defences that carry core beliefs in mapped out masking and coping 'solutions'. The repackaging of conflicts to masking 'solutions' runs the scaped 'release' in a novel arena that inevitably breaks down to crises of conflict. The ratcheting of sacrificial "virtue' generates deeper systemic conflicts - and here we are! I mention A Course in Miracles as its observation of the ego goes far deeper than Girad - yet in significant alignment - as does its Christed perspective as the release of the sacrificial dictate to a recognition of giving and receiving as one.
So do people chose friends cause they're like minded or become like minded cause of their friends? Does this also explain why some families or groups can just be totally crappy? Cause I've always wondered how or why some people chose to imitate some of the crappiest people, like criminal drug addicts who do dysfunctional stuff just to be doing it.
Except babies desire before they have anyone to imitate. Maybe French philosophers who get all their ideas from literature and none from direct observation of the world aren't the best place to go for ideas about how human beings function. Foucault certainly hasn't done anyone any good.
"He noted,", "It may be", "they seemed"... blah blah. Maybe to a degree, but those who invest too much in this opinion are probably his ONLY supporting evidence...
I'm convinced. I'm going to buy some of Girard's work. It's what all the good intellectuals are doing...
this is the last great french thinker... enjoy
Are you truly buying because all the good intellectuals are buying? or Simply because you're convinced? Indeed, you may be convinced but of what exactly....
In other words what makes it so convincing for you to buy the book?
And last but not least, which one of his work did you finally buy?
I may answer for you. None. Though this is simply a slight intellectual challenge to let you move your brain instead of your mind.
@@syntax_error6882 You are forgetting Bruno Latour.
And Jacques Ranciere is also up there (IMO).
Can someone recommend a more accessible way to learn more about this?
"The most important choice in each of our lives is who to imitate."
we are imitating monkey machines))
Just imitate God and to do that you have to KNOW Him, SAVED. There, all fixed.
It’s subconscious, just like clicking a video with more views or trusting someone with more followers
This is incredible... finally someone explained Mimetic Desire in a straight forward way. I tried to read Hidden Things and it's amazing but it is super densely packed, It mentions a bunch of literary references from Don Quijote to Marcel Proust and the Bible which I've never read to be honest. Of course I wanna read those and go back to Hidden Things eventually but for now , this is a nice clear explanation of the concept. Thank you.
I love Things Hidden and its his best work (in my humble opinion), but it's a terrible introduction to his theories. "A Theatre of Envy" and "Deceit, Desire and the Novel" are much better books if you're not familiar to his ideas.
@@fiilisboa Thanks for the observation. It actually helped me find a book called "The Girard reader" which should actually give a fair introduction to his entire work, while remaining a bit more accessible than the books themselves.
Fun fact: The Girard Reader, an overview of his entire work, was actually co-written by Girard himself! I recommend it as an introduction to Girard, written by himself. And after that, I would say his "Violence and the Sacred" is also perhaps his most accessible book since it requires less literary and mythological knowledge from the reader.
Did anyone notice the Cafe *Cervantes* at the end of the video?
Can’t agree more!
Nicely done! I wish Girard wrote as simply and elegantly as this presentation. Of course, this is only one of Girard operating principles in his whole theory.
I got this condition pretty bad. I was dating a woman on and off for 10yrs, and it was never really going anywhere. We broke up in the last 3 years but remained good friends. In that time I had no girlfriends and she had no boyfriends, and I was happy in life. Then one day she said she had a boyfriend. At that point I suffered full on break-up stress and grief, as fast as flipping a switch. I fought really hard to get her back. After a few days when my brain could get a word in between my gut wrenching emotions, I puzzled over my behaviour as I knew I was happier not being with her.
Hence how I stumbled across mimetic desire. She's not good for me at all, I'm happier as a friend, but I wanted her back so badly because someone else saw value in her.
Brains can be pretty self-harming. And it harms others too. I wonder how many people are murdered over this condition. Thankfully I was able to stop the emotion overriding the logic, and analyse the problem. Many don't and end up killing the partner.
Out of all this videos I watched this was the perfect examplen
Do the US government know that Kim Jong Il is spilling dark secrets about ‘mimetic desire’ on RUclips? 😂
ok.. we copy desire... but to copy it there must be one prime/ original desire... what and who produce that original desire ??
I’ll be real: White Lotus S2E5 here. You already know.
One thing I don’t understand: How does the person we model develop their desire? Somebody has to have been the original, or first, person to desire a specific thing, without imitating someone else.
That might be Adam, the first man on earth.
Fizza Rafique And who was Adam modeling? I supposed his desire was in line with God’s will, but then he was moved to follow Satan’s incentive? In “I See Satan Fall Like Lightening”, Girard says that mimetic contagion is the same as Satan.
@@cheddarpuff I think Adam was modelling "Hawa" or Eve. Eve was the one who desired the forbidden fruit as Satan had made her believe that it would give them eternal life. I feel like Satan is the root of all evil desires. Evil as in the ones that will cause violence and conflicts.
There are a limited number of things put in front of us. Some are inherently more desirable and get chosen by the people who have the most power. But the point is that not everyone would desire those items if it weren't for the mimetic effect. We are varied by nature but cluster due to the need for social cleaving. Our desires cluster in kind.
There really is NOTHING new. We really are just rearranging the chairs on the Titanic, enjoy.
you forgot that he specifically said Jesus Christ is the one to imitate
My first thought was Christ is the one to imitate.
Perfect!
Who came here after "White Lotus" S2 ?
"Man is the creature who does not know what to desire. He turns up to others in order to make up his mind."
Rene Girard's work is important in decoding the world we live in, adding a layer of perspective on the nature of our desires, the scapegoating mechanism of solving human conflict and the importance of treating literature as revealing the condensed, hidden truth since the foundations of the world.
This man was a genius
The solution to the answer is a question. Nice.
There is no other reason for buying pants with rips in them.
which is...
Brian Beasl😂😂👍
Lol. When a theory works it just works
and also for buying pants with no rips at all
Sometimes you wanna cool down with needing to wear shorts...
White Lotus???
@ImitatioVideo Did you once post a video depiciting Girard's explanation of the history of sacrifice/scapegoating using similar animation to this video?
Peoples personalities are collages of stimuli they either associate with, or associate with success. You can buy a book on it or you can drop acid and meditate on it either way itll get you to the same place. You should drop acid and meditate on it. It will boost your confidence over reading someone elses ideas. Then read their ideas and compare the two like youre equals rather than a student
Keep up with the Joneses....
Are we autonomous in choosing who to imitate?
No, we are all automaton
Yes, we can choose our models, acoordingly to mimetic theory.
Well, it's rather tautological: for "we" are ourselves mimetic creatures so autonomous choice cannot exist outside the mimetic network, as we depend on it for our very constitution. So any autonomous choice is always already embedded inside a mimetic structure.
@@stephanlittger9471 I sort of agree with you but I would say there's a way to get out of the Matrix, if you will. And once you're out, you're free to explore your unique desires without any imitation factor (so the OP's question is moot). Although it's only through exploring your own desires that you can escape.
Great animation, fascinating stuff! I just learned about Girard through tech investor Peter Thiel.
Me too!
Me too.
Now you know why we have social media. Peter was in on facebook at the beginning.
great video, though it would be nice if u could provide subtitles for non-English speaker
So was Rene Girard aware of James George Frazer's work? Because I can see similarities in Rene's work with Frazer's upon a cursory glance. And Frazer was an anthropologist who wrote the book The Golden Bough.
Yes, he was. I have not read Girard's original works extensively, but in he mentions Frazer. I am currently reading this book, and it is fascinating.
This is a two minute A-bomb. My initial thoughts:
Girard is giving us a half-truth, although it's the important half (currently).
But some things are inherently more desirable than others. Think about real estate.
Imitation happens naturally and is unavoidable ONLY UNTIL we get to know ourselves (which most people never do).
The ending of the video is loaded, with the "Cervantes" reference juxtaposed with the French pastry shop. I'll attempt to deconstruct later.
I have no idea what you’re on about. Real estate never has been and never will be something I desire.
@@justanotherother I think his point is that real estate is an asset/capital, so it more easily translates into common and greater needs like housing and food. Some desires prevail because they reward those who want it, and other, more useless desires are basically removed because of selective pressure. I've never read Girard, though.
This seems to apply more to the material sense of things and not necessarily the emotional? We are all product of our environment, so is that the whole "imitation" aspect? Plus mainstream media and advertising have to have somewhat of a play in this theory since a "choice"/product more advertised surely will be "chosen" more. What about the limited availability of "choices" that others may have more access too i.e. living in a smaller populated country or living in a country with heavy religious backgrounds? .....idk seems like alot of holes in this.....Just came across this theory and trying to understand it more....
The point is that we play right into mainstream media's hands. It's imitation that keeps our desires limited enough so that MM can manipulate. If there weren't so many of us wanting to own the same car or live in the same Florida beach house, MM would have no power.
I think MAGA world explains the emotional side of the picture.
thats true
Is he making the argument that this applies to all desire or simply saying this is one form or manifestation of it?
Who or how do you imitate a higher functioning successful person if you are isolated disadvantaged and raised by abusive alcoholics. Finding a mentor to imitate is important
You don't always imitate a higher functioning successful person. You can imitate your abusive alcoholic father. You can imitate your drug addicted mother. Also note: Girard talks about STRUCTURES IN LITERATURE. Taking this concept and applying it to real life may be useful in some respects (as the video highlights) but it is primarily useful for analysis of classic literature. As, for example, Eve Sedgwick has done in "Between Men" with her concept of homosocial desire (another LITERARY concept used for characters and the structures of their relations in literature).
I'm sure there's a "natural sciences" explanation to the origin of this phenomenon in humans. So what would the physics, chemistry and biology behind this phenomenon be? Maybe this is something that originated even before humans evolved sufficiently to be able to synthesize a distinctive " human culture". Probably in the period when the precursor to sapiens in the "homo" genuses existed - erectus, australo etc etc. I wouldn't be surprised if this thread stretches really really far back into history.
I’d assume the biology behind it is like everything else in the animal kingdom. Mainly to use one’s social landscape to their advantage so they can solidify their chances of mating and security.
Survival or social participation (human experience) will to learn or copy core cultural assumptions & behaviours as a masking self-presentation or thought-sytem of guidance and direction within the family, clan, or social identified group or ideology.
Much of this operates beneath and prior to any reflective evaluation as 'making a self' to fit and adapt to (our) learned world.
In A Course in Miracles the above is an aspect of ego. Its sacrificial nature is masked by gaining a world of limited controls against fear of total loss, that pertain to the split mind of a self-separation, for the masking self-image is made, not created, and as a source of self or guidance and protection, operates as filters, rules and blocks to a felt quality of being for which we have no language but the expression of unselfconscious joy - the language of relational being as distinct from relationships as contracts to get from or get rid of (onto).
The core narratives for the 'model' being emulated or followed draw on mythic archetypes as cultural variants and mutations of reiterating Separation traumas projected into victim and victimisers as self-justifications for attack along with grievance as the result and subsequent justification for defences that carry core beliefs in mapped out masking and coping 'solutions'. The repackaging of conflicts to masking 'solutions' runs the scaped 'release' in a novel arena that inevitably breaks down to crises of conflict. The ratcheting of sacrificial "virtue' generates deeper systemic conflicts - and here we are!
I mention A Course in Miracles as its observation of the ego goes far deeper than Girad - yet in significant alignment - as does its Christed perspective as the release of the sacrificial dictate to a recognition of giving and receiving as one.
Why not minimalism???
Hmm
So do people chose friends cause they're like minded or become like minded cause of their friends?
Does this also explain why some families or groups can just be totally crappy? Cause I've always wondered how or why some people chose to imitate some of the crappiest people, like criminal drug addicts who do dysfunctional stuff just to be doing it.
This doesn't apply to me at all.
I don't desire that annoying background music.
But if we're all imitating each other, what are we _really_ 'imitating'? ...
Enter: _the simulacra..._
So glad i found and start imitating Peter Thiel
except that does not explain who the first people that had no one to imitate did.
peter thiel brought me here
Explains female desire lol
Except babies desire before they have anyone to imitate. Maybe French philosophers who get all their ideas from literature and none from direct observation of the world aren't the best place to go for ideas about how human beings function. Foucault certainly hasn't done anyone any good.
I decided to imitate Elon Musk and Peter theil
Be imitators of Christ, God... Ephesian 5:1, 1Corintians 11:1. Sorted.
Nonsense....
either this is a glib explanation of Girard or Girard is glib
Clickbait. Gerard was not in this video. Just the ytbers summary
Hence the rise of fake gurus.
This is not Rene Girard explaining mimetic desire. The title is a lie.
"He noted,", "It may be", "they seemed"... blah blah. Maybe to a degree, but those who invest too much in this opinion are probably his ONLY supporting evidence...
Psychology dictates that those who most readily DENY new information are the ones most tangled in its implications.
@@TheDionysianFields BOOM!