What is the mimetic theory?
The mimetic theory is about human relations. It says first that the human self is not a separate entity but needs otherness to exist. It’s like the poet said, no man (or woman) is an island. We are more like a pot of overcooked elbow macaronis all stuck together in a glutinous wad. Once we realize this, it revolutionizes everything we thought we knew about human relations.
Desire
The most fundamental revolution is in our understanding of desire. It’s no secret that from the moment of birth humans learn everything from language to social norms from others – parents, teachers, friends. This learning takes place through a process of imitation, which is what the word mimetic means. The odd thing is that we even have to learn what to desire by imitating the desires of others.
Think about it this way. You and a cow both get hungry and you both have to find something to satisfy that hunger. Cows have no choice about what eat. It’s grass, grass, grass. They don’t suddenly wake up one morning craving the breakfast burrito they saw advertised on the side of a bus. But you can go to the trendy new restaurant you heard about from a friend because your desire for what to eat is unattached to any object. It’s learned. Put simply, we desire according to the desires of another.
Conflict
If I am learning to desire the things that you desire, maybe the thing we both want is something we can’t share very well, like a promotion or a piece of property or a lover or the last breakfast burrito. We could come to blows over it, not because we are so very different, but because we share the same desires. Shared desire is at the root of the quarrels, rivalries, conflicts and wars that have plagued desiring humanity since we began walking on two legs.
The Raven Foundation
The Wicked Truth About Love: The Tangles of Desire is a product of The Raven Foundation. Written by Raven founder, Suzanne Ross, it applies the insights of mimetic theory to romantic love.
The Wicked Truth About Love
