The social theorist Rene Girard is best known for the observation that people often want things because others want them first, not because of their inherent value. He dubbed this type of imitative acquisitiveness “mimetic desire.” While this concept is counterintuitive in some respects, it also accords well with familiar social patterns such as “keeping up with the Joneses.” It’s straightforwardly at work in advertising, which instills in us the desire for products by showing us attractive, cheerful people already enjoying them, and in social media, which enables us to look first at what others do and say before forming our own desires and opinions.
Girard was based at Stanford University from 1981 until his death in 2015. This placed him squarely in Silicon Valley during the explosive growth of personal computers, the mainstreaming of the internet, and the rise of smartphones and social media. Although Girard’s work rarely made mention of the burgeoning technology industry, it is now perhaps among tech entrepreneurs that Girard’s ideas are most prominently discussed, largely thanks to the influence of PayPal founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who has oft stated his admiration for Girard’s work.
