“Man is the creature who does not know what to desire, and he turns to others in order to make up his mind.” — René Girard in Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World
Have you ever wondered, why you want what you want?
Our desires are inspired by others. We want something not because they are inherently desirable but because someone else’s desire for them has made them attractive to us.
To understand the modern world, we have to look at the work of René Girard. Often called the “new Darwin of the human sciences,” Girard spent his career uncovering a single, uncomfortable truth: human desire is not original—it is imitative.
1. The Triangle of Desire
We like to believe our desires are our own, that we simply “want” a specific car, career, or lifestyle because of our unique tastes and personalities. Girard argues this is an illusion. He proposed a Triangular Model of Desire:
• Subject: You.
• Model: The person you are imitating.
• Object: The thing they have that you want.
We don’t spontaneously desire an object; we desire it because we see a someone (model) desiring it first. The model conveys to us the “desirability” of that object.
2. When Imitation Turns to Rivalry
Imitation is peaceful when the model is far away (like a celebrity or historical figure). Girard calls this External Mediation.
However, things get dangerous when the model is someone in your immediate social circle—a peer, a colleague, or a sibling. This is Internal Mediation. Because you and your model are in the same “world,” you begin to compete for the same objects, status, and recognition.
As the rivalry heats up, the object itself actually becomes less important. You begin to crave the “being” of the rival—you want to be them. This turns your hero into your greatest obstacle.
3. The Scapegoat Mechanism: How Societies Survived
When a community is infected by “mimetic contagion,” it descends into a “war of all against all.” To prevent total self-destruction, ancient societies developed a grim “safety valve”: The Scapegoat Mechanism.
The community mimetically redirects its scattered violence toward a single, arbitrary victim—the scapegoat. By uniting “all against one” and killing or expelling the victim, the tension is instantly discharged. Peace is restored.
Because the victim’s death seemingly “brought” peace, the community often views the victim as having supernatural power, eventually deifying them as a god or saint who both caused the trouble and provided the cure.
Mimetic contagion = the rapid spread of imitation within a group, leading to collective alignment of desire, emotion, or behaviour.
4. The Weaponization of Victimhood: The Victim as the New Hero
Girard argued that modern society is unique because we have become hyper-aware of the scapegoat mechanism. Since the “concern for victims” is now a core moral value, groups no longer compete by claiming to be the strongest; they often compete by claiming to be the most victimized.
In this “mimetic competition for recognition,” groups imitate each other’s tactics to claim moral authority. If one group gains power by highlighting their suffering, other groups may mimetically adopt that same strategy to regain status. This can lead to a cycle where “victimhood” becomes the ultimate source of power, making the search for a new scapegoat (someone to blame for the victimization) even more intense.
Historical and Literary Examples
| Example | Girardian Context |
| Oedipus (Sophocles) | Oedipus is the archetypal scapegoat. He is blamed for a plague (mimetic contagion) and expelled. Though initially reviled, he is later sought after as a source of “lasting peace” for whichever land buries his remains, demonstrating his divinization. |
| The Cold War Arms Race | A “strongman rivalry” where two powers reflexively imitated each other in building nuclear weapons to the point of “mutually assured destruction.” |
| Post-WWII France | Following the Nazi occupation, the French Resistance scapegoated “collaborators”—often vulnerable women—who were shaven, humiliated, and loaded onto trucks in “stylized rituals of retribution” for catharsis. |
| Sino-American Relations | Girard predicted in 2007 that conflict would arise between the U.S. and China because their forms of capitalism were becoming “more and more similar,” increasing the “surface area of competition.” |
| Antisemitism | Girard viewed the Holocaust and pogroms as the “divine interpretation” of the gospels, where humans used the text to justify the scapegoating of Jews, failing to recognize the text’s actual message of victim innocence. |
“The victims most interesting to us are those that allow us to condemn others.”
René Girard
About René Girard
René Girard (1923–2015) was a French historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science who has been described as the “new Darwin of the human sciences.” His work establishes a comprehensive framework for understanding human behavior, the origins of culture, and the nature of social conflict. Girard’s system is built upon the discovery that human desire is not autonomous but is fundamentally imitative, a concept he titled Mimetic Desire.
Dive Deeper: Resources & Videos
I invite you to explore further and highly recommend the following resources.
• The Scapegoat (Audio): Complete 5-part CBC ‘Ideas’ series by David Cayley – A deep dive into Girard’s life and legacy in his own words.
• Johnathan Bi’s 7 part series: René Girard’s Mimetic Theory is an accessible and comprehensive introduction to Girard’s theory and how it works in our modern world.
• Wanting: Mimetic Desire: How to Avoid Chasing Things You Don’t Truly Want by Luke Burgis – available on both Kindle and Audible.
• Article: René Girard and the Rise of Victim Power – An analysis of how mimetic theory applies to today’s “victimhood culture.”
“If we continue to deny our mimetic nature, we will think we are doing justice when in fact we are simply choosing new victims.”
René Girard
Exodus 