Link: WOF 3485: The Power of Mimetic Desire with Luke Burgis

Here are some of my takeaways after listening to the podcast:

One talking point in the podcast was René Girard's interpretation of the story of the adulterous woman brought before Jesus (John 8:1-11). This is the story where Jesus famously says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Before he even utters that famous line though, the bible passages specifically says that Jesus looks down and writes on the sand, while the scribes and the Pharisees try to get a reaction out of him. By the law of Moses they said, a woman caught in the act of adultery will be stoned. Jesus averts his gaze and keeps writing on the sand.

Why?

Girard thinks that Jesus was averting his gaze to avoid imitating the accusatory behavior of the accusers. If behaviors like that, can be imitated unconsciously, then that would explain so much of the toxic behavior online. All it takes is one person to throw the stone, and then everyone else picks up a stone and slings it at the accused.

You can see this play out in social media. A common example is when somebody gets jumped on by the masses for saying something wrong on Twitter or Facebook.

The key point from Girard is this: what Jesus was doing in that Bible passage, was showing us how to deal with negative mimesis. It can be really easy to get whipped up into being an accuser and start throwing stones all over the place. What we need to do, is take a step back and avert our gaze before coming up with our own judgement of the situation.

The hive mind of the internet, of social media, can be described by René Girard's Mimetic theory.

Another interesting point that was mentioned in the podcast, was the 10th commandment, “Do not covet your neighbor's goods.” How quickly we've forgotten that in today's world. And why wouldn't we, when this is what the internet and social media serves up everyday; photos and videos of our neighbors living their best life with the coolest products at their disposal.

Another way to look at it is, God already knew that we humans will fall prey to mimetic desire. So he tried to steer us away from it with the 10th commandment. And yet, we easily forget about it in today's modern world.

Social media has made everyone our neighbor.

The sheer reach of social media has made everyone appear to be our neighbor. And with that comes the unconscious imitation of our neighbor's desires. And with that comes rivalry and competition.

Can you see it now? This is why people keep trying to one-up each other on social media. It's rivalry and competition caused by mimetic desires. Mimetic conflict/desire/theory by René Girard does explain so much of our current state of the world.

For car enthusiasts, there's a short story on the rivalry between Ferruccio Lamborghini and Enzo Ferarri. The owner of Lamborghini realized that competing against Ferrari (mimetic rivalry) only brought him stress and sleepless nights, so he actively sought ways to avoid it.

To get away from mimetic desires and rivalry, you have to find God's mission for you.

How does that help?

It helps because that mission is going to be unique to you. Everybody else's mission is going to be different. That means you won't end up comparing yourself to others, because each person has a different mission.

If you focus only on your desires in life, if you focus only on what you want to do in life, you'll end up comparing yourself to others to see what they are doing and how they are doing relative to you. And then you'll find yourself subjected to mimetic desires, rivalry, competition, envy, etc...

If you've made it this far, I thank you for reading. In the event that this is my last post for the 2022, I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Tags: #Bookmarks #WordOnFire #MimeticTheory #ReneGirard #BishopBarron #Christianity #Spirituality

Creating habits: how long does it take to form a habit? — the title pretty much explains what this article is about.

So, how long does it take to form a new habit? Apparently, it takes an average of around 66 days, or 2 months, to form a new habit. That is way longer than what is normally mentioned in articles or magazines I’ve read. That means if you want to build a habit of doing pull-ups right after waking up, you need to consistently do it for 2 months straight.

After reading this essay, Peter Thiel's Religion, and finding out about the idea of mimetic theory, of us imitating others, my mind was opened up. I'm starting to see it around me. Most of everything we do is imitation. I don't quite know yet what to do with this new found information, but I'm excited to find out more about it.

Blogging and Digital Gardens

A digital garden is where you go to think. And once you've sorted through your thoughts and ideas, you go to your blog to write it all down, then share it to the rest of the world.

Splitting one big blog/website into smaller more focused blogs/websites, is you, the author, shifting the responsibility of categorizing/filtering content away from the reader. Instead of the reader having to deal with figuring out how to only subscribe to content on your website that they like, you break it up for them so it is easier for them to pick and choose what to follow or subscribe to. It might not be the most efficient use of your resources or your time, but it is more respectful of the readers time.

The more I work on my digital garden, the more I become convinced that my Digital Garden as it is in Obsidian, does not need to be shared online. What needs to be shared is the content, which already makes its way into my posts on my various blogs/websites.

Nutrition

Always wondered why most recommendations for eating chicken is to eat one that doesn't have skin on it. Well now I know. That's because chicken skin has high amounts of saturated fat.

Why does that matter? It matters because saturated fat can increase your LDL (bad cholesterol). So, if you are trying to keep your cholesterol in check, take off the chicken skin before eating it.

Spirituality

Heard these lyrics in a song:

Show me all your scars and I'll show you the cross.

Yeah, we all have our scars, we all go through our own suffering. But take a look at what Jesus, the son of God, endured on the cross for you and me. Let that put your scars and suffering into perspective.

You cannot change God no matter how hard you pray. God will do what He wants because He is God and you are not. The key though is that He always wants what's best for you. So even if He does whatever He wants, it's always taking into account what's best for you.

^ Thought inspired by one of Bishop Barron's Daily Gospel Reflection.

Misc

Found this pretty cool and free Anime Avatar Maker.

Writing is addictive to me because just like woodworking, we are creating something tangible that can be shared with other people.

The same feeling or motivation that drives secular people to share their causes online, is the same feeling or motivation that drives religious people to share the Gospel. Its finding something that you are so invested in emotionally, that you cannot help but share it with other people.

This applies to anything that hits you on an emotional level. If it made you feel something, you will more than likely want to share it with others.

Tags: #JournalEntry #Bookmarks #BuildingHabits #MimeticTheory #Blogging #DigitalGarden #Reflection #Nutrition #Spirituality #Christianity #Writing