In the passage from childhood to adulthood, the open imitation of the infant becomes the hidden mimesis of adults. We’re secretly on the lookout for models while simultaneously denying that we need any. Mimetic desire operates in the dark. Those who can see in the dark take full advantage.

“Pick your one overwhelming desire. It’s okay to suffer over that one,”

Movements of desire are what define our world. Economists measure them, politicians poll them, businesses feed them. History is the story of human desire.

The high priest would lay his hands on the head of the goat that was bound for Azazel. As he did so, the priest would confess all the sins of the Israelites, symbolically transferring them onto the animal.6 After the priest had said the appropriate prayers, the people would drive the goat out into the desert, to Azazel, expelling their sins along w

The health of an organization is directly proportional to the speed at which truth travels within it.11 Real truth is anti-mimetic by its very nature—it doesn’t change depending on how mimetically popular or unpopular it is.

Whether we recognize it or not, our minds think in hierarchies all of the time—whether it’s related to our daily to-do list, the priority of issues in an election, or even a glance at a menu in a restaurant (appetizers, main course, dessert). Without a hierarchy of values, which helps form and direct desires, we can’t even begin to think about what

The scapegoat mechanism prevented a society in crisis from destroying itself from within. It worked in a paradoxical way: the scapegoat mechanism contained violence through violence.

C. S. Lewis called this invisible system the inner ring. It means that no matter where a person is in life, no matter how wealthy or popular a person is, there is always a desire to be on the inside of a certain ring and a terror of being left on the outside of it. “This desire [to be in the inner ring] is one of the great permanent mainsprings of

The original scapegoat mechanism brought order out of chaos—but the order depended on violence. The reverse process brings chaos out of order. The chaos is meant to shake up the “orderly” system, predicated on violence, until something serious is done to change it.