Cheryl, thanks for pointing out my typo in my comment above, I fixed it: I’m more believing now, not more skeptical!

The idea that our desires our mediated by others’ desires rings true for me, though I’m not quite sure how this matches up with Girard’s notion of mimetic desire—it seems closely related to me. Of course anyone in marketing believes in this notion of society-mediated desire. I think this is very common among children—the familiar scenario (esp. to me as a new parent of a toddler…) where no one’s paying attention to a toy, and then one kid picks it up (usually the most independent kid who cares the least about the other kids’ interests) and starts playing with it, largely because no one is playing with it, but then suddenly the other kids see the toy with new eyes and desperately (in the sense of tantrums…) want to play with it. Notice in this case that the common/mimetic desire leads immediately to a rivalry/conflict.

At a slightly more mature level, I think we see this very commonly in Junior High and Middle School children when everyone becomes so peer conscious. Where the desirability of a cute boy or hot girl is largely dependent on how popular or desirable the community, or those most influential in the community, think the boy or girl is. This is, I think, a very powerful and convincing form of mimesis, and it affects us in very subtle, but also very real, ways.

And I think this kind of rivalry is esp. common (and perhaps even less noticeable for that reason) in Western capitalist society. Men are obsessed with competitive sports, and women are obsessed with looking better and better and skinnier and skinnier, and everyone wants to be above average (at least as Garrison Keillor might describe it). I recently saw the Walt Disney movie “Sky High” which has an interesting character, Layla, in it who refuses to take part in the competitive nature of the school (where superheroes go to school, and are classified according to their super powers). Again, I think the resonance of this character (at least I thought she resonated…) attests to the notion of mimetic rivalry as a cultural truth. On the other hand, I guess making this link with capitalist competition doesn’t really lend direct support to this being an attribute of earlier, less capitalist cultures, but it has helped me think about mimetic desire and rivalry with more appreciation.

(Or, Cheryl, am I misguided in this way of thinking about mimetic desire and rivalry?)