Desire that unconsciously ‘mimics’ or adopts the desire of another – as deduced from whatever seems to make that other person ‘greater’. For René Girard this is also the ‘covetousness’ forbidden by the 9th and 10th commandments – because is is also, he argues, the root of all violence. An example would be what we tend to see as a need not to be ‘left behind’ by technology such as the latest generation of mobile phone. So, for mimetic theorists, mimetic desire is the root of ‘consumerism’ and therefore also a factor in climate crisis as well as international competition and conflict.

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