The Raven Foundation

Have you ever wondered how mimetic theory changes lives? ME TOO! So, I decided to put together a top ten list. Here you go:

1. You will resent monkeys for the phrase “Monkey see, monkey do” because you know that we humans are by far the superior imitators.
2. You will see the destructive nature of religions.
3. You will see the constructive nature of religions.
4. You will understand the paradox of 2 & 3.
5. You will see how scapegoating works and that the goat you scape may be your own. (I don’t know what that means, but I think you get the picture.)
6. You will impress others as you boldly use words like “mimetic,” “interdividual,” and “internal/external mediation.”
7. You know you have to be bold with #6 to give the impression that you know what you are talking about.
8. You will find out that there is a wrathful divinity and it is us.
9. You will realize how bad it is to be good.
10. You will discover that the best way to scandalize someone is to forgive them.

That's my list.  Would you add anything?

That’s mimetic.

The “Tebowing” and now “Cruzing” and “Bradying” phenomena are evidence of humanity’s mimetic nature.  As René Girard has put forth in developing the “mimetic theory,” humans are the best imitators on the planet.  We are so good at imitating, most of the time we don’t even know we are doing it.  This non-conscious imitation is how we learn from others.  Girard calls the “others” we imitate our models – we admire our models and want to be like them.  We want their success, fame, prestige, or fortune.  For example, as the above video shows, our culture has begun to dance the salsa in imitation of Victor Cruz’s celebrations after scoring a touchdown.  As the announcer in the video says, “The salsa is spreading like an internet virus.”  Babies, teenagers, and adults (even a dog!) are imitating Cruz’s victory dance.  Not only are we imitating Cruz, but we are imitating others who are imitating Cruz – hence the baby and the dog.

Even Madonna isn’t immune from imitating Cruz.

According to Girard, this imitation is a positive thing because it’s how we learn, but he also claims there is a dark side to this imitation.  It can turn very negative.  As we imitate one another in the desire for success, fame prestige, or fortune, we can easily fall into rivalry with one another because we desire the same things.  Two football teams, let’s take the Giants and the Patriots for example, want the same thing – to win the Super Bowl.  After winning, the Giants can celebrate by dancing the salsa, but how do the Patriots feel?  Envious.  Why?  Because they want what the Giants have – success.  And here’s the scandal: If you are a Patriots fan, you have a secret admiration for Giants fans.  You admire them because they have what you want.  Sure you feel a sense of hatred, but behind every hatred is a sense of admiration.

When the other team has what we want, we get frustrated.  And frustration always finds an outlet.  If we don’t deal with frustration in a positive way, the need for an outlet will either cause internal strife within our community as we blame one another for a loss, or we will find an external outlet.  As the video shows, a group of frustrated Patriots’ fans were congregating in Boston after the game.  A Giants fan did a little salsa dance, and the group turned into a mob.  Its frustrations coalesced on the man and “as he continued to taunt the crowd, he got sucker punched.”

Yes.  It was a stupid thing to do.  But he was imitating his model, Victor Cruz.  Every celebration after a touchdown will be interpreted by the other team as a taunt.  As a bit of mockery.  In essence we’re saying, “I have what you want.”

And then the ultimate taunt – “Nananananana!”

We imitate winners, but we can also imitate “losers.”  Imitating losers can be a positive thing, if we imitate them in order to share in their pain.  But it can also be a negative thing, as I think is the case with the “Bradying” phenomenon.  Imitating losers is often a way of mocking them – but we only mock those we secretly admire.  We admire our models and our rivals.  In fact, our rival is also our model, for we want what our rival has.  Football fans admire Tom Brady because he has the success we all want.  Playing in five Super Bowls and winning three of them is an amazing career.  We envy Brady because we want the success he’s had.  And so when he fails we mock him.  We imitate one another in mocking him in order to keep him down.  For when our rival is down, we are up.

We admire both our models and our rivals.  We want what they have, which can lead to rivalry, and even to violence.  Now, you may be searching for an answer to all of this negative imitation that’s going on.  Fortunately, there is an answer – but, I’ll tell you up front, few people like it.  It’s not glamorous.  And it’s hard work.  If you want to transform this negative imitation into a positive imitation, the answer is in identifying with cultural “losers” in a way that feels their pain.  Few people want to do that.  We’d rather do a salsa dance – and keep others from dancing with us.

Giants and Patriots fans, after all, don’t dance together.

Most of us buy into a mistaken understanding of human desire which makes it hard to explain some everyday phenomenon. Like why do we all want the latest high tech gizmo or this season’s fashion must-have item. It’s not because these things have some intrinsic value or because the desire for them just happened to arise spontaneously within millions of people at the same time. I know iphones are cool, but do you really believe you would want one if no one else had one? Aren’t they cool because everyone around you thinks they are cool? If I’m not convincing you to see it my way, I think I’ll let the writers of the Simpsons give it a try. They agree with me and they are so much funnier than I am.

In Season 6, episode 15, we meet Homer on new billboard day. He’s very excited to see what’s being advertised and as he drives by each one on his way home, we see them go by: English Muffins; Best in the West Barbecue Sauce; and Clown College. At work the next day, we see that Homer has on his desk the English muffins and the barbecue sauce. Surveying the stuff, he says, "Well, I got everything I was supposed to get. I'm not going to enroll in that clown college, though...that advertisement had absolutely no effect on me whatsoever.”

Like the rest of us, Homer realizes that advertisements do affect him and while he surrenders willingly to the first two billboards, he is in denial about the effect of the third. But denial is not enough to undermine the power of the billboard. At dinner that night, Homer begins shaping his mashed potatoes into a circus tent and hallucinates his family dancing to clown music holding up billboards for the clown college.

Finally, in a fit of righteous anger, he says, “That's it! You people have stood in my way long enough. I'm going to clown college!” As he storms from the table, his son Bart says, “I don't think any of us expected him to say that.”

The reason that’s funny is because we all know that Homer’s desire to be a clown did not arise from deep within him. Even Homer knows that he was manipulated by the billboard, and yet he defends his desire to be a clown as if it were some essential and undeniable part of who he has always been. What we see in this exaggerated way in Homer is something that is true about all of us: all our desires are suggested to us from outside of ourselves, but like Homer we often deny that truth.

So what’s the harm with a little bit of denial? So what if we are manipulated by advertising – iphones are fun and Homer would have a great time at clown college, right? Here’s the problem: Homer got into conflict with his family because he believed his desire for clown college was some essential part of himself and the only reason he hadn’t fulfilled his dream is because his family stood in his way. When we deny the source of our desires we fall into delusional thinking just like Homer did. So your objection is not entirely off base. The problem is not that we are influenced by others – heck, that’s just being human (or cartoon-human as the case may be). The problem is when we DENY the truth about ourselves. That’s when we fall into blame, like Homer, or envy of others who have the things we say we want.

The Simpsons scene could have been extended a little further if Homer had run into Krusty the Clown after his outburst at dinner. You can imagine Homer’s reaction – he would have been angry and resentful that Krusty was a Clown and Homer was not. Why? Because seeing Krusty would enflame his desire to be a clown, but Homer wouldn’t admit that. He’d think Krusty was rubbing his failure to be a clown in his face. See how it works? Denial of borrowed desire leads to false blame, to envy and resentment. What a mess!

So the next time you feel a twinge of envy or a rush of resentment for the guy with the latest gizmo, remember that the person you think is so awful is actually the one you secretly want to be like. It’s as if they were a model on a billboard and so you have two choices: you can either joyfully run out and get the gizmo or you can pretend they have no effect on you whatsoever. If you choose to pretend, don’t be surprised if your mashed potatoes start taking on weird shapes. There is a third choice, of course, which is to be as mature as Marge Simpson, and love the Homer in ourselves no matter how crazy we get. Haven’t you always secretly wanted to be Marge anyway? That tower of blue hair is to die for!

Raven Founder Suzanne Ross was a keynote presenter at the Theology and Peace conference held in Baltimore, MD, in June 2011. Her paper, Beyond Power Struggles: Teaching Without Rivalry, illustrates how the teaching of Maria Montessori supports child development while avoiding teacher/child rivalries.

Sandor Goodhart, author of Reading Stephen Sondheim: A Collection of Critical Essays, is a Professor of English and Jewish Studies at Purdue University and Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Classical Studies. Professor Goodhart is a Raven Foundation Board Member and one of the founders of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion (COV&R). In this interview, Professor Goodhart examines the talent of Sondheim, his message and his audience.

Author Debra Anstis is a part time lecturer of New Testament Greek at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. A longtime reader of the work of Girard, she is a member of the Australian Girard Seminar a well as COV&R. Her interest in mimetic theory primarily relates to biblical studies and theology, however, she believes its engagement with other fields makes it especially thought-provoking. In this essay, she examines mimetic rivalry in the world of hip hop.