Luke Burgis has done a lot of heavy lifting in making the work of Rene Girard accessible.
We're regularly faced with tough dilemmas. Should you accept this job offer or wait for the next one? How do you decide on an ideal partner? Should you take up running or crossfit?
It's important to develop a system for appraising options and making high quality decisions.
The first step is realising desires and needs are not interchangeable. The way in which you might desire a luxury handbag is not the same way you might need water or shelter. Even within a class, I wouldn't conflate a craving for McDonald's chicken nuggets with the basic need for food.
According to René Girard, the formation of desires is a social process:
‘We would like our desires to come from our deepest selves, our personal depths,’ he said, ‘but if it did, it would not be desire. Desire is always for something we feel we lack.’
According to him, desire isn't something we can conjure up alone. It's mimetic, meaning we copy it from others. The things you desire are the things you have seen modelled as desirable. No matter how fiercely independent you may think yourself, nobody is born with undiscovered knowledge, so it stands to reason we generate all our signals from people we encounter.
In order to pick apart influences on your desire, here are some questions to ask yourself:
- Who most embodies the lifestyle I'd like to lead?
While this person may not actually live the lifestyle you imagine, it's still a good idea to pay attention to the people who inspire you most when it comes to imagining what kind of life you'd like to lead.
- In my childhood, who were the most influential non-parental figures in my life?
How proximal were they to me (friends and family vs professional sports figures, rock stars)?
- Is there anyone I would rather see fail than succeed?
Models of desire aren't always positive - there may be negative models you constantly compare yourself to. Ask - 'Is there a particular group of people whose accomplishments make me feel uneasy?'
Less mimetic desires are those most fundamental to human nature.
