Girard Digest: Desire

[tealin]

As human beings and creatures of the world, we want things. This is obvious. Some of the things we want are what any animal would want, what they need to survive: food, water, shelter; love, sex, children. These desires are driven by instinct, and satisfy biological needs. If we weren't compelled to strive for them, we (or, eventually, the species) would perish.

But there is a whole world of other desires on top of these. The sneakers with sparkles on, the tickets to Hamilton, the solar panels, the iPhone – they don't satisfy your biological needs any better than their alternatives, but they tell you something about who you are, and your place in society. We want solar panels because we want to be The Person Who Helps The Environment, or The Person Who Is Independent Of The Grid, or The Person Who Nabbed That Sweet Tax Rebate (or some combination of the three) – or perhaps we want not to have solar panels, because we want to be The Person With Superior Knowledge Of The Solar Industry.

Each model carries its own cultural cachet, and each model has an appeal. They are culturally driven desires, which are determined by the desires of those around us, by what is valued in our culture. Because culture runs on that subconscious imitation called mimesis, they are, therefore, mimetic desires.

Chapter 5: Mimetic Desires

Comments

[amaliak]

Desire itself isn't really a problem on it's own: it's usually an issue when it's given control without any sort of restraint or boundaries. It's kinda like a car isn't inherently dangerous and could in fact be useful, and even essential to a way of life but if rules of the road or even gravity and physics aren't followed or used with a selfish disregard for others, a car is a weapon of potentially mass destruction.

[tealin]

Strap in, I'm going somewhere with this. :)

[amaliak]

OOOOOH, ready!