I wonder how many atheists have read René Girard. Everything they have ever blamed on religion traces back to instances when the mob failed to recognize the innocence of the scapegoat. Nor do they understand culture as a process of sublimation.
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Girard has already discussed this. The rage, victimization, etc all trace back to a response to mimetic desire.
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Re: "mimetic desire of same object giving rise to rivalry that creates conflict": I tend to think of causation flowing the opposite way. We are inherently rivalrous b/c status was so important to us evolutionarily. Status is zero-sum, so only gained at other's expense. 1/2
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So we desire objects others desire to prove our higher relative status (if we attain scarce object, we are superior to them). The desire for the object flows from our inter-relational desire and almost just serves as a type of Schelling point. Does that make sense to you? 2/2
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Desire is ontological. It's a seeking of Being. What is higher status other than an ontological desire to orient yourself towards your mimetic model?
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I must admit, this went a bit over my head. And I want to make sure my understanding of mimetic desire, which is fairly rooted in evolutionary adaptation as of right now, is not missing something deeper. So what do you mean when you say desire is a "seeking of Being"?
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This is perhaps more existentialist than Girard. Camus's question: Why are we not committing suicide? Joseph Campbell: What we really seek is the rapture of the experience of feeling alive. Also see Heidegger on "What is Metaphysics?" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology
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Gotcha. Thanks! In your view, does mimetic desire somehow aid us in finding this feeling of rapture? I'm wondering how mimetic desire is connected to Camus' question and Campbell's answer above, if at all.
End of conversation
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