Mimetic behavior

The Scapegoat Mechanism

René Girard, a French professor, developed the theory of mimetic behavior, which offers an explanation for the scapegoat mechanism—one of the cornerstones of various religions and human cultures.

It all stems from man’s intrinsic will and desire to want only what others also want. We often want to drive the same car that others drive. We want to live in the same house that others live in. We want to have a life that others also want to have. We even go so far as to want to look the way others want to look.

This phenomenon of human behavior, termed mimetic desire by Girard, drives one of our primary and most obscure tendencies.

From the moment we are born, we exhibit this behavior. Evolutionarily speaking, we are programmed this way, and it makes perfect sense that we are. Notice that from the moment we are born, we seek out and have a desire to imitate others. A baby imitates what they see their parents or caregivers do. A child will do what their close group of friends does. And even as adults, we want to do—and do—what our peers do.

And that is how we learn to copy what others want. Deep within our being, we have this almost innate ability that helps us survive in a world that is unknown to everyone.

We don’t want to be left behind, or be the one who does something differently, and then risk being “attacked by a bear.”

But, in short, all this mimicry and almost insane synchronization of desires and aspirations leads to a major problem. While almost everyone may want the same thing or desire the same situation, not everyone can—or will ever be able to—have it.

Not everyone can have the same car, the same house, the same partner, or the same job. We cannot all be equally rich, powerful, or important.

Even our closest friends end up becoming adversaries, and our neighbors turn into our enemies.

And so, after this escalation of tension, there is a need to release it somehow. What Girard then argues is that we seek a scapegoat.

All the rivalry that had built up, and all the envy, ends up being directed toward a single target: a victim. Someone from outside the “group,” or someone who isn’t quite “like” us—someone different, and who is usually also more vulnerable and more susceptible.

The group, or the community, gathers and unites, focused solely on attacking that person, and the tension gradually subsides... and peace is gradually restored.

The scapegoat mechanism is as old as the human sacrifices of ancient times, or as recent as the cancel culture of our days. But the only way to resolve the situation is to recognize unequivocally that our wills, our desires, do not have to be copied from other people, from those we admire, or from our peers.

While a scapegoat may temporarily and momentarily reduce or eliminate the tension that has been building, if we refuse to understand the underlying cause and source of interpersonal tension, it will never truly disappear.

Can we look within ourselves and realize what our true focus, our true goal, should be? Can this ever be implemented universally by everyone? Isn’t it something that goes against our survival instinct? Let’s look at how advertisers operate and how they do their work. They instill in the mind of every person who sees and is targeted by advertising a strong sense of need, which leads to a motivation to do whatever it takes to want what is being advertised or seen.

We still have to overcome something so fundamental to our behavior in order to evolve as a society and, above all, as a species.