```
Girard’s studies in literature, history, and sociology led him to develop a pretty cynical theory for why we want things:

We don’t know what we want, so we imitate what other people want. He called this “mimetic desire.”

People are switching jobs, getting divorced, and feeling dissatisfied more than any time in history. It’s as if our values and desires are in a constant state of fluctuation, changing with the slightest off-hand comments or newest trends. Rene Girard saw it coming: we have no concept of what we truly want or value, so the next best thing is to mimic someone else’s desires.

The girl with the Louis Vuitton bag got 600 Instagram likes – drop two grand.

Being a [insert religion here] worked for the rest of my family – do the same.

He’s a lawyer that makes money and drives a cool car – go to law school.

Everyone’s having fun in L.A. and New York – pack up and move.

The compound effect of mimetic desire is that it creates a culture where we battle for products, ideologies, and lifestyles that likely won’t satisfy either person fighting for them. We unintentionally manufacture social, political, and cultural norms, then try to stand out by being really good at those norms. And if that doesn’t work, we look for something else to “want.”

Needless to say, social media turbocharges mimetic desire. Scrolling through Facebook and Instagram is like diving into a vortex of social proof. It’s where our personal tastes are formed. It’s where “likes” have more merit than authenticity or talent. It’s where we learn to want what everyone else wants.
```

mimetic existence

basically old-school NPC theory

... what I wouldn't give for a meme right about now

but yeah, there it is.

sad, right ?

we keep acting like there was a time in human history where most ppl where original

or deep thinkers

they weren't

only difference is that now, we live in an era of unprecedented democratization

which means that we get to truly see the banality of most ppl's existence

out in the open

same reason why our celebrities are shitheads and music is just ppl selling sex

extreme democritization

of taste

in the past, the nobles decided what was "tasteful"

memetic warfare has supplanted physical warfare here...

or maybe it's just been expanded into a battlefield all it's own

ppl always assumed that social media would be an unwarranted goldmine of sorts
back in the early days

it would just be of ppl sharing ideas and books and what not

now it's just people yelling at each other... well mostly.

the Rubin Report is definitely a font of such ideas and books

but Twitter is just angry people in a town square yelling at each other.

yeah, now we're back to different sections or factions

we screwed up somewhere.

you can stay on twitter, youtube and follow certain intellectual peeps

but the bigger issue is that we can fall farther still.

everything on the internet comes through filters moderated by corporations

I don't think its all that bad tho

this is just societal flux that happens right after a communication revolution

like, soon after the printing press and widespread availability of bibles

things actually became much worse

for a short period of time

ppl went around burning witches based on certain phrases, that which was previously ignored by priests

that's fair I guess.

similarly, we're in a constant weekly witchunt

constant cycle of offense followed by apologoy and firing

soon, ppl would get tired of it

justs like the witchhunts of the past

or not..

because tech seems to keep disrupting