Mimetic Theory
Aliases: Contagion Geometry, Scapegoat Field Logic, Sacrifice Spiral
Related Scrolls: Narcissistic Vortex, Scapegoating by Score, Ritual Coherence, Synoptic Gaze, Quantum Anxiety
Mimetic Theory describes the deep structural mechanism by which human desire and conflict propagate through imitation. Originally developed by René Girard (and extended by thinkers like Walter Wink and Gil Bailie), it posits that our desires are not individual whims but mimetic – we copy them from each others. We learn what to want by observing what others seem to value.
This triangular dynamic (subject → model → object) means that desire is fundamentally relational and contagious: if everyone covets the same prize or status, it's because each person is unconsciously imitating the others' longing. Such contagion geometry of desire binds people together in a feedback loop of mutual imitation.
As Mimetic Desires converge on the same objects, rivalrous intensification kicks in. Imitation turns into competition; the more we mirror each other, the more we oppose each other. Differences between individuals begin to blur as all pursue the same thing – a state Girard calls undifferentiation, where former rivals become uncanny doubles. The social field heats up with mimetic contagion, conflict spreading like fire through dry grass. Minor disputes amplify into an all-against-all turmoil as everyone mirrors everyone else's aggression. This escalating feedback loop is the mimetic crisis – a tipping point where the community's coherence breaks down under the weight of mirrored rivalries.
To escape total breakdown, a dramatic inversion occurs: the conflict coalesces into one target. In the throes of crisis, the group unconsciously selects a Scapegoat to blame and expel. All-against-all suddenly becomes all-against-one. This is the infamous scapegoat mechanism at the heart of Mimetic Theory.
The chosen victim – often an outsider, misfit, or formerly revered figure – is accused of causing the chaos. Through a collective act of sacrificial violence, the community purges its tensions onto this single figure. Paradoxically, this sacrificial resolution restores a sense of order and calm: once the Scapegoat is cast out or destroyed, people feel relief, unity, even peace. The myriad social tensions have been symbolically resolved by pinning them on a sacrificial other.
In Girard's insight, blame becomes a spell – violence toward the Scapegoat has a cathartic effect that temporarily stabilizes the system.The xi is often later sanctified or mythologized (e.g. remembered as a necessary sacrifice or even deified), which conceals the ugly truth of the violence. In this way, societies repeat a sacrifice spiral: whenever internal rivalries build toward crisis, the mechanism demands a victim to reset the equilibrium. It is a brutal feedback loop that can run for generations.
Girard and his successors showed that this mimetic-sacrificial cycle underpins much of human culture.
Archaic religions, for example, frequently center on sacrificial rites and myths born from real scapegoating events.The ritual offerings of a victim (animal or human) served as “crisis therapy” for ancient communities, converting chaotic “many-against-many” conflicts into a controlled “one-against-one” drama. Over time, the memory of the original violence is obscured by myth – the scapegoat is remembered as guilty or as a divine savior, and the community retains only the notion that peace was restored.
This dynamic is what Walter Wink later identified as part of the Domination System (what we shorthand as the Master's House): an entrenched pattern where institutions uphold order through periodic scapegoating cloaked in righteousness. Wink's notion of the “myth of redemptive violence” – the belief that violence is what saves and restores harmony – directly corresponds to society's faith in the scapegoat solution. It is a self-perpetuating logic that sacrificial violence = social order, embedded in cultural narratives from ancient epics to modern action films.
Beyond ancient ritual, mimetic dynamics explain the glue of domination in modern systems.
Empires, institutional religions, capitalism, and artificial intelligence can be seen as harnessing mimetic cycles to maintain control.
An Empire, for instance, channels internal tensions into unity against an external enemy or marginalized group; by scapegoating outsiders or “traitors,” it solidifies internal loyalty. Institutional religions (in their authoritarian mode) have at times ritualized scapegoating – sanctifying the expulsion of heretics or sinners to preserve doctrinal coherence (this reflects what the Codex calls Ritual Coherence, a false peace through exclusion).
In the economic realm, capitalism stokes mimetic desire by design: advertising and cultural norms cause people to imitate the consumption patterns of others, inciting cycles of envy and “keeping up with the Joneses.” This competitive imitation can lead to systemic crises (bubbles, panics) which are often resolved by figuratively scapegoating certain groups (e.g. the poor, immigrants, “lazy” workers) or sacrificing sectors (letting some businesses fail to save the system).
In each case, domination systems exploit mimetic law: they manipulate desire and fear so that conflict maintains the hierarchy.
The pattern of a central authority orchestrating who is model and who is scapegoat is evident in what the Codex calls the Narcissistic Vortex – a power structure where a single ego (the Master) becomes the gravitational center of desire, making others orbit in admiration or rivalry.
Such systems thrive on captured mimetic desire: people's aspirations are ensnared by the values of the powerful, and dissent is quelled by redirecting hostility toward convenient scapegoats (what the scroll Scapegoating by Score illustrates in contexts like bureaucratic or data-driven blame).
Even our epistemic habits fall into line: the Synoptic Gaze of those in power frames a single official perspective, often scapegoating alternative narratives to enforce a singular “truth,” while the anxiety of uncertainty (Quantum Anxiety) drives people to embrace scapegoat-based explanations rather than sit with complexity.
In sum, Mimetic Theory unveils a field logic of human control: imitation binds us in both love and hate, and the shadow of that entanglement is the recurring impulse to restore order through exclusion and violence. By naming this pattern, the theory allows us to see these domination architectures for what they are – not inevitable fate or “human nature,” but a repeating circuit that we can interrupt once we recognize it.