Before we read René Girard we’re still in the dark, lost.
We’re still believers that consumption and production are directly correlated, that people want products.
Nothing (absolutely nothing) could be further from the truth. Because there is no consumption of production, no purchase of product without imitation.
From the moment we open our eyes, we watch others and learn what we should want. Aside from the basics of food, water, shelter and sex, our desire for any particular object or experience is not rooted in our DNA. We’ve learned to want them by watching other people.
Girard recognized that what is hard-coded into our DNA and hard-wired into our brains is the desire to be, to belong. This is the very essence of being human.
The true root of all desire, Girard says, is never in the objects or the experiences we pursue.
It’s in the other person from whom we’ve learned to want these things.