Jews in Germany in the 1930s, Jews in Hungary today, Muslims in India today, Latino immigrants in Trump’s America).ĥ. The scapegoat can a be a person (see next bullet) or a community (eg. The scapegoat is deemed to be responsible for all grievances although, in reality, the grievances arise from mimesis. During this period of intense competition, as unhappiness increases and grievances multiply, society seeks a scapegoat.

The logical escalation of this competitive battle is aggression vis a vis each other which sometimes culminates in violence.Ĥ. Then, in the heat of the battle, differentiation takes a back seat as all of us strive to outdo each other in acquiring these symbols of prestige. As hoards of people start seeking the same things, competition (or mimesis as Girard calls it) intensifies. However, if 20 people around me begin coveting diamonds (or admission for their children into a certain school or flats on Altamount Road or holiday villas in Goa), then I too am likely to covet the same. For example, in isolation I have no incentive to covet a diamond which to my mind is a worthless stone. As a result, we start coveting the same things as others. learn from each other and copy each other. Then a complication kicks in because human beings, being social animals. At the outset, this desire to compete and create new things, conquer new frontiers is a healthy thing as it spurs creativity, innovation and differentiation.Ģ. Human beings have an innate desire to compete with each other and rise in the world. Over the past couple of years we have highlighted the powerful ideas of the French philosopher Rene Girard who created the idea of ‘mimesis’ (see our June 2019 blog: marcellus-things-hidden-since- the-foundation-of-the-world/) and his most famous student, Peter Thiel: “In 1978, Rene Girard published a remarkable book called “Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World”….Girard’s hypothesis unfolds sequentially:ġ.

Wanting by Luke Burgis