Have we ever looked into our desires? Not to question “How do we fulfill it?” but “Why do we want it fulfilled at all?” According to Girard, our desires our simply illusions. Mere mirages that have no root at all as they are not really our own.
Take a glance at our own lives. We are told to ace our tests no matter the cost, to attend a prestigious university no matter how dull, to get a prestigious job no matter how trivial. According to Girard, the puppeteer pulling the strings behind our desires is none other than prestige. Which is why Girard attempts to differentiate the deceptive desires of prestige and the authentic desires of our soul. Allowing Girard to shape and form the theory of Mimesis, Mimetic Desires and Metaphysical Desires.
But along the way, Girard realized that there is something inherently evil in these desires. The cardinal cause behind human greatness, was also the cause of the human fall. Thus, Girard begins to paint an anthropology of the cross. At last, his startling argument on how “Metaphysical Desire” is none other than out original sin.
Mimesis
Mimesis can be defined as “the human capacity or tendency to imitate others.” This imitation happens in a broad sense. It dyes our values, pulls and pushes our judgements and silently affects our actions. To understand Mimesis easier, Girard uses David Hume’s idea of sympathy from his “A Treatise of Human Nature”.
To Hume, sympathy is the human capacity to understand others by “co-experiencing” their emotions. And to emphasize his point, he employs a rather famous metaphor; imagining sympathy to be like two violin strings close together. When one is plucked and vibrates, a similar frequency of vibration is translated to the other.
As in strings equally wound up, the motion of one communicates itself to the rest; so all the affections readily pass from one person to another and beget correspondent movements in every human creature.
While, sympathy deals with communicating emotions between people, Mimesis communicates them all. From thinking, and judgements to our values and actions. Everything, can and is, being affected by Mimesis.
The analogy painted by Hume, blends well with explaining Mimesis for three reasons:
- It paints humans as naturally social creatures. There needs to be at least two violin strings for there to be a communication of vibrations. No man is an island.
- It’s paints Mimesis as a tendency. We imitate unconsciously, just like how plucking one string will lead to the other string vibrating as well.
- It does not rob us of our agency. Just like how a violinist can pluck the second string differently or completely stop it, we too have the agency and free will to control Mimesis in our lives.
Evidence of Mimesis
The immense influence by Mimesis, begs the question of evidence. Is there or is there not any proof of Mimesis? Girard’s evidence is, however, not practical but interpretive. That is to say, he relies mostly on hypothetical evidence. Evidence that goes, “Just imagine this”, or “Just humor me for a while and see how the possibilities bloom.
But this does not mean he does not provide practical evidence. The imitation Mimesis provides, is innate, so much so that they can even be observed in babies! Andrew N. Meltzoff, an American psychologist, noticed how babies as young as 40 minutes old started imitation the facial expressions of the experimenter. Now, of course, it was the first time babies saw silly faces, yet they were able to mimic them with surprising accuracy.
Significance of Mimesis
We have now learnt of Mimesis and found that it is true; however, what of it’s significance? What purpose does it serve in our lives, if it serves any at all?
To answer that, let me pose a question? How would you know how long a table is? Or perhaps how tall is a chair? We can verify this by simply measuring it. This is called “descriptive certainty”. It’s certainty, can be verified with any of our senses.
However how do you find the good? The beautiful? How should I treat people? This is when Mimesis enters the room. Mimesis gives us “normative certainty”. The influence of Mimesis in the certainty can be divided into three parts:
- Recognition: The absence of this “Mimetic recognition” can be felt when we feel alienated. When our opinions aren’t validated, we are swarmed with thoughts of insecurity and doubt. Imagine being in a room full of musicians, while they are engaged in a deep conversation about their passions. If you had no knowledge of music, you would feel almost alone or lonely in the room, though it is filled with people. That is the power of Mimesis.
- Prestige: When you are among pairs of individuals, Mimesis takes the form of recognition. But in groups, it transforms into something more; Prestige. It’s Mimesis strongly diluting and tinting opinions in a group. When we say something is “prestigious” we also at the same time mean that it does not deserve it’s value. There’s something more, a shine and glamor that isn’t it’s own. Girard would say that this added value comes from the value placed on by our peers.
- Sacred: Now, let us push the throttle to the extreme. Imagine an object that holds infinite “normative certainty”. Girard would call that object “sacred.” Even the building blocks of gods are built by Mimesis. To a believer, a sacred shrine would be utterly glorious and divine, but to an unbeliever, it would simply be a pile of carved rocks. Think of the money we use, paper currencies. Who would have ever imagined that a stack of paper could buy gold or diamonds? The value we give it is nothing but delusional in nature, however that does not mean it is unimportant.
To Girard, Mimesis is a crucial and even necessary authority. Even those who faithfully followed reason seemed to agree upon the most common opinion in their times. 2000 years of Christians affirming similar values, 2500 years of Buddhist philosophers agreeing on a rough cosmology. Even the pursuit of reason itself, needs to be grounded in unanimity. A man without mimesis would soon turn insane as it is common with intellectuals like Van Gogh or Nietzsche.
This is the first part of my blog in understanding Rene Girard’s Mimetic theory. If you enjoyed reading my writing, then perhaps you might also like my other posts. I post every Friday!