Wanting (The Philosophy of René Girard) by Luke Burgis (Summary)

Key Takeaways

• In the modern market economy, companies and individuals compete with each other in business instead of using violence. Economic competition is less bloody than violence. Economic one-upmanship is the new violence.
• Strange or shocking behavior mesmerizes people. People are drawn to others who seem to play by different rules. Learn about selling; open up, come out of your shell.
• The fastest way to become an expert is to get a few key people to publicly call you an expert.
• Be wary of crowd-proclaimed experts. Focus on experts who have stood the test of time.
• Karl Marx thought that differences between people cause conflict. Shakespeare thought that similarities between people cause conflict. When people are too similar, their memetic desires cause them to want the same things which leads to them fighting over it.
• Everyone is looking for a model to follow. Like a 15-step process to life or a rubric for how to write their essay. When there is nothing to copy, people don’t really know what to do.
• There are 2 kinds of desires. Thick desires are desires that you deeply pondered and are true to yourself—these rarely change. Thin desires are desires that are highly memetic and are often shallow and can change frequently.
• • People who hate their job at 40 and have a mid-life crisis followed thin desires.
  • Thick desires can be done right now. Ex) You can develop your relationships with your family.
  • Thin desires are distant. Ex) You think you want to retire because you have some idea of all the things you can do once retired.
  • Thick desires are noble and low time-preference virtues.
• You can stop rivalry and increase empathy by asking these questions and feeling like you relate to the experience.
• • What's the most fulfilling thing you've ever done?
  • Who have you deeply loved?
  • Where do you go when you want to numb the pain?
• Over time, you will realize that our deepest desire is to help others achieve their desires.
• Wanting is another word for loving.
• The purpose of work is not to make more. It is to become more. Work is about personal development.

Notes

People fight because memetic desire causes them to want the same things. The more people fight, the more they tend to resemble each other. We should choose our enemies wisely because we become like them.

In a relationship context, a lack of desire increases the other person’s desire. Showing too much desire decreases the other’s desire.

Strange or shocking behavior mesmerizes people. People are drawn to others who seem to play by different rules. Learn about selling; open up, come out of your shell. Like Steve Jobs and his "reality distortion field".

Time, space, money, and status cause rivalry.

40 years ago, getting a college degree could have been the best model. Today, there is no guaranteed model because there is so much technological innovation and things are changing. The desire models of the past will (almost surely) not work for the future.

The fastest way to become an expert is to get a few key people to publicly call you an expert.

Be wary of crowd-proclaimed experts. Focus on experts who have stood the test of time.

It's difficult for someone to claim to be a physics expert. But it is easy for someone to claim to be a productivity expert simply because they got published in a prominent blog.

Don’t follow rivals or exes on social media and don’t talk to them. Completely cut them out.

Karl Marx thought that differences between people cause conflict. Shakespeare thought that similarities between people cause conflict. When people are too similar, their memetic desires cause them to want the same things which leads to them fighting over it.

Everyone is looking for a model to follow. Like a 15-step process to life or a rubric for how to write their essay. When there is nothing to copy, people don’t really know what to do.

CS Lewis talked of an inner ring. People always want to be in the “inner ring” even if they already have money, status, and fame. Everyone wants to be where the best/coolest stuff is happening.

• Flat companies (idea meritocracy) try to remove the outer ring (obvious hierarchy with employees, managers, and executives) but they forget about the inner ring (who is close to the CEO). Whoever is close with the CEO or other “higher ups” will have more power and job security than others.

Groups will blame a scapegoat for everything. The group will channel their memetic desire against one person or group that is a proxy for all of their enemies.

Scapegoats usually have some kind of personality difference, or autism, or something physical that makes them different. They are on the margins of society. In terms of status or markets, they are on the outside.

Scapegoats are often kings or beggars. Today, politicians/billionaires or homeless.

The phrase “throwing the first stone" is important. Before the first one is thrown, there is no model for people to follow. But after that first stone is thrown, it shows others that it’s ok—even preferable. This can create wild precedents. It is easier to desire something (especially violence) when it has been desired by someone else first.

• This can also work in the opposite (positive) way. If one person refuses to throw a stone and instead drops it, it creates a model for people to follow by not throwing their stone.

People desire punishing a scapegoat more than they desire the truth.

Rituals give the participants a group catharsis (releases emotions). Over time, they realized that animals gave the same cathartic effect.

• We no longer have traditional rituals, but they have crept into sports, universities, etc.
• • After a team loses a season, they fire the coach and they are the scapegoat. After, the team can hire someone new and start fresh the next season.
• Carrie, Midsommar, and Lord of the Flies show the scapegoat mechanism.

Scapegoats only “work” (successfully create group catharsis) when the group does not realize that they are using a scapegoat—they have to actually think the scapegoat is to blame.

There are 2 kinds of desires. Thick desires are desires that you deeply pondered and are true to yourself—these rarely change. Thin desires are desires that are highly memetic and are often shallow and can change frequently.

• People who hate their job at 40 and have a mid-life crisis followed thin desires.
• Thick desires can be done right now. Ex) You can develop your relationships with your family.
• Thin desires are distant. Ex) You think you want to retire because you have some idea of all the things you can do once retired.
• Thick desires are noble and low time-preference virtues.

Envy should be talked about more. It is highly pervasive but people rarely talk about it.

You can stop rivalry and increase empathy by asking these questions and feeling like you relate to the experience.

• What's the most fulfilling thing you've ever done?
• Who have you deeply loved?
• Where do you go when you want to numb the pain?

Describe an event or time when you were very fulfilled. You had to:

1. Have been the protagonist and taken action.
2. Have gotten a result that you are proud of.

There are different types of motivations.

• Some people are motivated to master a skill.
• Others are motivated to get the "80/20" of a skill and then move on to another.
• Others have a core motivation to comprehend and express. These people are great for writing non-fiction, teaching, and making educational videos.

Sharing fulfillment stories makes you feel connected with other people.

Peter Thiel tie-in:

• People who go "zero to one" are the ones who create the model for other businesses to follow.
• People who go "1 to n" are the one’s following the new model.

Transcendent leaders:

1. Don’t emphasize their own desires, they develop an external goal that everyone can work towards.
2. The truth. When have you done everything you can for the truth?
3. Discernment: how can you tell what is true or best when it is not clear?
4. Sit quietly in a room.

Questions to analyze your desires:

• Which of your desires gives a feeling of lasting satisfaction? What gives fleeting feelings?
• Ask yourself which desire is more generous and loving.
• Imagine yourself on your deathbed. Which desire will you be more at peace with having?
• Ask yourself where your desires come from.

Google is like a deity that answers our questions (prayers).

Facebook gives us love and belonging.

Amazon fulfills the need for security—access to goods in abundance to ensure our survival.

Apple appeals to our sex drive and the associated need for status, signaling one’s attractiveness to a mate.

Letting go of thin desires requires suffering.

Figure out what your one greatest desire is. Then transform and let go of your other desires so that they aid your greatest desire.

The most important part of choosing a model is to choose one that will help you develop as a person. This allows you to be better in the future and be able to think of and follow better models.

Over time, you will realize that our deepest desire is to help others achieve their desires.

Wanting is another word for loving.

The purpose of work is not to make more. It is to become more. Work is about personal development.

There are several things that are used to dissuade violence:

1. The scapegoat mechanism contained violence by using violence. Instead of widespread violence, they had orderly channeled violence. The scapegoat mechanism doesn’t work as well anymore. Once there is one scapegoat, say, on the news, only a few days pass before people want a new one. We no longer believe that scapegoats are actually guilty—that is what makes them less effective today.
2. The modern market economy. It channels memetic desire into productive activity. Businesses and individuals compete with each other in business instead of using violence. Economic competition is less bloody than violence. Economic one-upmanship is the new violence. Status is akin to capacity for violence now. So the poor are essentially the victims of violence with this mental model.
3. The unknown. In the future, we will need to find a new way to channel memetic desire in productive (non-violent) ways.