In a famous Simpsons episode (Season 13, ep. 11), Lisa explains to Bart what mimetic desire is: wanting something or someone because someone else wants the same thing. Bart is hurting because he dumped a girl who then picked up with someone else, and the scene begins (at 27 sec.) with him bemoaning his mistake in letting her go. Lisa explains:
In order to begin to understand why the “Cult of the Occupation” is deluded, consider the following evidence.
Haram al Sharif, 1954
Haram al Sharif, 2007
One can well imagine, the weeds are gone.
Of course, as René Girard, the theorist of mimetic desire, pointed out long ago, there’s a direct link between mimetic desire and scapegoating.
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