Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life

We often "want" things not because we have a physical need for them, but because of a social desire. Our "models" also want something, so we feel we must also. People generally like things that are familiar, but not clones. Somebody acting just like their "model" is annoying. Somebody that follows the general accepted behavior pattern is accepted. 

Today, there is a tendency to rely on the wisdom of crowds. Big data allows us to mine minute differences in behaviors. However, the wisdom of the crowds is not necessarily what you want. Some companies, like Tesla go against this and are highly successful.

Crowds cna get whipped up into a frenzy, wanting things because the crowd wants it. A scapegoat can be used to work around this. The scapegoat channels the behavior towards a single entity, preserving others. Money is another means for preserving peace. Interestingly, high inequity is not necessarily bad. People are so different that they don't have the desire. However, closer levels of wealth can create more conflict as people see a possibility.

The writer also has some discussions of the work of Rene Girard in the understanding of wanting as well as the author's personal history of running his company. Many people do jobs because they are driven by others to do them. The quest for a michelin star can be all encompassing for a restaurant and chef. This external desire can get in the way of the internal desire to produce quality food. 

In our lives, there are many things we think we want. The challenge is in finding what we really want, and what is just crowd influence. Meditation and spending time totally disconnected is one way we can help disentangle our desires from those of others.