https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/mimetic-desire-the-subjective-nature-of-scarcity-and-the-pitfalls-of-equality/2006/05/10 Researching, documenting and promoting peer to peer practices Mon, 08 Sep 2014 08:33:51 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.5.14 https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/mimetic-desire-the-subjective-nature-of-scarcity-and-the-pitfalls-of-equality/2006/05/10/comment-page-1#comment-392 Tue, 16 May 2006 04:34:07 +0000 http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=180#comment-392 […] Here’s just an excerpt, I recommend reading the whole entry at the original blog. Monday morning conceptual intersections…. Reading a P2P foundation blog on mimetic desire, I began thinking about scarcity. In Rene Girard’s view of society, a fundamental rivalry simmers quietly beneath the social order (taboos, rituals, institutions designed to prevent an eruption of violence). According to Girard, our needs are not met simply by directly satisfying the object of our desire. Our desire is mapped to the desires of others: it’s mimetic. As a result, satisfaction is a scarcity, and scarcity is not a material, but a psychological fact. If I want X because my friend wants X, only one of us can have X. In the traditional utilitarian view of the world, X is scarce. In Girard’s view, it’s not that X is scarce, but that desire doubles up. It’s that we all want what others want that makes the objects of our desire scarce, and our desires competitive. […]

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