A series of diverse sects formed around charismatic leaders such as Simon Magus, Valentinus, Basilides, Marcion, and Mani. [...]

A divine spark remained in the human soul that sought to return to a transcendent good god. The remembrance of this divine spark required gnosis: a special type of knowledge of the divine mysteries of the world. This knowledge is reserved only for an elite.
    Gnosticism: The ancient belief system may be the key to understanding modernity. (Lee Trepanier, March 26, 2025, Conservative Encyclopedia)

I've read this book twice, listened to it twice, thought about it endlessly and puzzled over what to say about it. So, first of all, as the forgoing makes obvious, it's an incredibly worthwhile read. Second of all, it's topic--the adoption of Girardianism by venture capitalists, lead by Girard's former student, Peter Thiel--is even more timely now that Thiel-acolyte J. D. Vance has been chosen to run with Donald Trump. But I'm still kind of perplexed by what it is precisely that these folks see nr seek in the theories of Rene Girard.

Mr. Burgis offers a helpful entry point to the thought of this professor/philosopher by trying to make it a practical tool for business and life. It is very nearly a self-help book. He marshals myriad instances from the business world and from his own career in VC to try and illustrate how Girard's two key propositions--the universality of mimetic desire and the persistence of the scapegoat theory--impact every day life. But these two theories seem deeply dubious.

For simplicity sake, let's just use the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy's definition of mimetic desire:

Girard’s fundamental concept is ‘mimetic desire’. Ever since Plato, students of human nature have highlighted the great mimetic capacity of human beings; that is, we are the species most apt at imitation. Indeed, imitation is the basic mechanism of learning (we learn inasmuch as we imitate what our teachers do), and neuroscientists are increasingly reporting that our neural structure promotes imitation very proficiently (for example, ‘mirror neurons’).

However, according to Girard, most thinking devoted to imitation pays little attention to the fact that we also imitate other people’s desires, and depending on how this happens, it may lead to conflicts and rivalries. If people imitate each other’s desires, they may wind up desiring the very same things; and if they desire the same things, they may easily become rivals, as they reach for the same objects. Girard usually distinguishes ‘imitation’ from ‘mimesis’. The former is usually understood as the positive aspect of reproducing someone else’s behavior, whereas the latter usually implies the negative aspect of rivalry. It should also be mentioned that because the former usually is understood to refer to mimicry, Girard proposes the latter term to refer to the deeper, instinctive response that humans have to each other.

So say my neighbor is high-school drop-out who went back to community college to learn computer programming, wrote an algorithm that Google bought along with hiring him, and worked his way up to a key role managing the company. Now I see the Ferrari parked in his driveway so I want one too, but I want it because I'm simply imitating what he desires? And I'm not interested in imitating him in any other way, not the education, the inventiveness, nor the hard work. If I saw that car in another driveway, and had no idea who owned it, would I not desire it? If we were really just imitative creatures would I not imitate his behaviors in order to be like him? One of Girard's most peculiar examples of mimetic desire involves the notion that we desire mates only because others desire them. But how many of us marry a friend's ex or want a friend's current partner? Rather few of us, after all, live out the drama of Mike Kekich and Fritz Petersen. Revealingly enough, many of the examples of mimesis that Mr. Burgis provides from industry generally and his own career specifically do indeed involve imitating behaviors, not just wanting similar stuff. Venture capitalists don't necessarily want a male partner, like Peter Thiel, but they do try to build lucrative companies. Mimetic desire appears rather thin gruel.

Part of the problem here is that Girard was propounding an essentially literary theory, rather than a scientific one. He developed his theories on the basis of reading classic texts for a course he was required to teach. This led him wildly astray, nowhere more so than in his misinterpretation of human sacrifice. He came to believe that human societies had nearly universally practiced such sacrifice as a way to cleanse themselves and that they chose victims who were somehow outside the mainstream of the culture. One might think that the example of Isaac, beloved son of Abraham, or of Oedipus, King of Thebes, would be sufficient to trigger some doubts. But nevermind these literary examples, even more problematic is that sacrifice seems to have often been ">viewed as a high honor rather than a punishment for social stigma. Girard's putative insights don't withstand even minimal scrutiny.

Girardianism is hardly the most bizarre belief system of the Right, but the reason for their adoption of it is less apparent than something like eugenic/Darwinian ideas. What's going on here? Personally, I concluded that it is mostly just a form of bragging. People must want to imitate you, right? And if you get yourself sideways with society we're just making you a scapegoat, even though you're completely innocent! Okay, stop the presses. The great essayist Tara Burton has an explanation of what's going on with these guys:

In this, Thiel appears to be following the playbook of the German-Jewish twentieth-century philosopher Leo Strauss: on whom he has written, and of whose works he has often spoken approvingly. (Earlier this year, after Thiel spoke at a New Criterion event, he was presented with a special gift: a rare edition of one of Strauss’s books). Among Strauss’ most influential ideas was the conviction that the world’s greatest thinkers—from Plato to Hobbes—intentionally obfuscated their ideas through layers of irony and abstraction, to be understood properly only by a knowing, superior few.

The medium is the message, as media theorist Marshall McLuhan famously said. And it is precisely in Thiel’s Straussian ambiguity—the vibes that his speeches and spending alike elicit—that we can better understand his message: one that transcends the easy binary of “Burning Man libertarian” and “Trumpian conservative.” To do so is urgent.

Thiel’s ideology is, increasingly, becoming the ideology of much of Silicon Valley and the New Right alike. It is a conflation of libertarianism, reactionary sentiment, and instinctive anti-wokeism, that characterize Thiel and Silicon Valley fellow-travellers like Elon Musk. It is, at its core, a religious mission, although—despite Thiel’s close partnerships with Christian organizations and his ambiguous statements about his own Christianity, Thiel described himself as “religious but not spiritual” during the talk—it is not a Christian one.

Rather, Thiel, like many others in Silicon Valley, appears to advocate for a kind of Nietzschean techno-vitalism: a faith not in genuine ideals but in their power to shape and subdue a fundamentally stupid and innately violent populace: a populace who know enough only to want whatever it is they think that other people want: the cornerstone of Girard’s theory of mimetic desire.

Despite the purported title of Thiel’s talk—“Nihilism is Not Enough”—it is a fundamentally nihilistic vision. On this view, humans fall into two categories. On the one hand, you have the clear-eyed quasi-divine mages of technology, like Francis Bacon (who, Thiel reminds us, “saw that mastery in science was inseparable from the mastery in control of all things.”). Or, say, like Thiel himself. On the other hand you have the fools, the sheeple, the so-called NPCs, or “non-playable characters” who can be controlled by those who know how to control their desire. For Girard, Thiel’s former teacher, mimetic desire was downstream of sin: a perversion of our desire for God, warped by our yearning for what other people want, be it money, sex, fame, or online clout. For Thiel, who was an early investor in Facebook, mimetic desire appears to be a useful strategic tool. Control the memes and you can control the world.

This makes the self-help nature of this book entirely appropriate, if rather insidious. It's basically an attempt to inject the nonsensical Girardian memes into business culture in order to control the narrative. They aren't even necessarily supposed to be coherent as long as you can get the right sorts of folks to buy into them. Thank goodness we don;t have to take them seriously.

(Reviewed:21-Jul-23)

Grade: (C) Orrin C. Judd

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Luke Burgis Links:

    -AUTHOR SITE: LukeBurgis.com
    -TWITTER: @lukeburgis
    -NEWSLETTER: Luke Burgis newsletter
    -BOOK SITE: Wanting (MacMillan)
    -GOOGLE BOOK: Wanting
    -ESSAY: Mimetic Desire 101: A short introduction to why we want the things we want. (Luke Burgis, Jan 17, Anti-Mimetic)
    -ESSAY: Why Every Creator Deserves an Agent: A new kind of agent could help creators navigate and negotiate a rapidly evolving landscape (Luke Burgis, Apr 13, 2021, Marker)
    -ESSAY: Why We Want What Other People Have: Making choices based on the desires of others is a part of human nature. But there are ways to counteract the force. (Luke Burgis, 5/20/21, Forge)
    -ESSAY: Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life (Luke Burgis, 21 July, 2021, Next Big Idea Club)
    -ESSAY: Knowing Why We Want What We Want (Luke Burgis, Constant Renewal)
    -ESSAY: Culture War as Imitation Game: The timeliness of René Girard’s case against idolizing politics (Luke Burgis, Summer 2023, New Atlantis)
    -ESSAY: Cynthia L. Haven talks about René Girard; Hamline frankly defies the AAUP (Len Gutkin, 10/09/23, The Chronicle Review)
    -
    -PODCAST: Trialogue: What Is Political Atheism?,/a>: Joshua Mitchell, Shadi Hamid, and Jerry Bowyer discuss one of René Girard's most paradoxical terms (Moderated by Justin Lee, JUN 13, 2024, Novitate)
    -PODCAST: What is Mimetic Theory? Philosophies of René Girard with Luke Burgis (Garry Tan, 6/01/21)
    -PODCAST: Wanting with Luke Burgis (The Innovation Show with Aidan McCullen, Jun 1, 2021)
    -PODCAST: Luke Burgis (Team Human, 4/28/2021)
    -PODCAST: The Power of Mimetic Desire | Luke Burgis (Bankless, 7/05/2021)
    -PODCAST: ML179 Luke Burgis on The Power of Mimetic Desire, Choosing Role Models and How To Want What You Need (MetaLearn, 8/11/21)
    -PODCAST: Luke Burgis on Mimetic Desire and Getting What You Want in Life (Daily Stoic, 6/05/21)
    -AUDIO INTERVIEW: Getting to Yes, And… | Luke Burgis (WGN-Second City Works, 8/03/21)
    -PODCAST: Wanting: how to declutter our desires to pursue what we truly want: Luke Burgis (Finding Brave)
    -PODCAST: “Wanting” by Luke Burgis (The Notepod 19, JUNE 18, 2021)
    -PODCAST: Why Do You Want What You Want? (with Luke Burgis) (Todd Henry, The Accidental Creative)
    -PODCAST: Luke Burgis — What Drives Human Desire? (EP.50) (Infinite Loops, JUNE 3, 2021)
    -VIDEO PODCAST: Luke Burgis - Why We Want What We Want (Ryan Hawk, Jun 3, 2021, The Learning Leader Show)
    -PODCAST: What We Really Want with Luke Burgis (Mind Meld 256, 04 Jun 2021)
    -VIDEO PODCAST: WANTING - Luke Burgis: The authentic self is individual and social (Leadership Freak, May 31, 2021)
    -PODCAST: Investigating the Thought-Provoking Concept of Mimetic Desire with Luke Burgis (Finding Genius Podcast, 7/05/21)
    -PODCAST: Episode 194: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Markets, Politics, & Culture | Luke Burgis (Demetri Kofinas, Hidden Forces)
    -PODCAST: Luke Burgis: Mimetic Desire, Bitcoin, Breakups, Criticisms of René Girard, & Re-reading The Gospels (Auxoro, 8/13/21)
    -PODCAST: Podcast #714: Why Do We Want What We Want? (Art of Manliness, 6/07/21)
    -INTERVIEW: Q&A: Be Not Conformed—Girard and the Problem of Desire in a Postsecular Age (Alexandra Davis and Luke Burgis, February 29, 2024, Public Discourse)
    -INTERVIEW: What Shapes Our Desires?: Luke Burgis Discusses the Power of Fiction, Health of the Humanities, Mimetic Desire, the Woke/Anti-Woke Binary, and the Three City Problem (JOEL J MILLER, JUL 17, 2024, Miller's Book Review)
    -VIDEO ARCHIVES: Luke Burgis (YouTube)
    -REVIEW: of Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life by Luke Burgis (Thomas J Bevan, University Bookman)
    -REVIEW: of Wanting (Publishers Weekly)
    -REVIEW: of Wanting (Matthew Verre)
    -REVIEW: of Wanting (Christina Patterson, Times uk)
    -REVIEW: of Wanting (curtis Gruenler, The Bulletin of the Colloquium on Violence & Religion)
    -REVIEW: of Wanting (Cups of Tea)
    -REVIEW: of Wanting (25 Hour Ideas)
    -REVIEW: of Wanting (Theodore Kinni, strategy + business)
    -REVIEW: of Wanting (Geoff Shullenberger, Yahoo!)
    -REVIEW: of Wanting (Justin Lee, Arc Digital)
    -REVIEW: of Wanting (Financial Times)
    -REVIEW: of Wanting (Ana Kwarteng, Coveteur)
    -REVIEW: of Wanting (Donald Roth, In all Things)
    -REVIEW: of Wanting (
    -REVIEW: of Wanting (
    -REVIEW: of Wanting (

Book-related and General Links:

RENE GIRARD


    -WIKIPEDIA: Rene Girard
    -
    -ESSAY: Things Hidden: The Life and Legacy of René Girard: A new documentary about one the greatest thinkers of the 20th century (Luke Burgis, Dec 16, 2024)
    -PODCAST: The Scapegoat: The Ideas of René Girard, Part 1 (CBC News · Posted: Mar 03, 2016, Ideas)
    -ESSAY: A Geometry of Desire: René Girard's Mimetic Theory, Part 1 (JOHN GANZ, DEC 02, 2023, Unpopular Front)
    -PODCAST: Know Your Enemy: René Girard and the Right, with John Ganz Matt and Sam welcome back John Ganz to discuss René Girard, the Stanford polymath whose theory has inspired a devoted following—including Peter Thiel, Girard’s former student. (Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell ? February 26, 2024, Dissent: Know Your Enemy)
    -PODCAST: René Girard, Mimesis, and Conflict (with Cynthia Haven) (Russ Roberts, Jun 24 2024, EconTalk)
    -INTERVIEW: ‘Love Triumphs over Violence—Eventually’: Cynthia L. Haven on René Girard, Joy Davidman’s Curious Path to C.S. Lewis, Poets in Exile, More (Joel J Miller, Nov 02, 2024, Miller's Book Review)
    -ESSAY: The Prophets: René Girard: By applying the lessons of great novels to real life, a professor predicted cancel culture decades before the internet existed. (Cynthia L. Haven, April 27, 2024, Free Press)
    -ESSAY: Girard's Demystification of the Hegelian Struggle for Recognition (Andreas Wilmes, October 15, 2024, Church Life Journal)
    -ESSAY: A Mass Grave of Maya Boys May Shed Light on Human Sacrifice in Chichén Itzá: Researchers have genetically tested the bones and made determinations of gender and family relations (Sonja Anderson, June 13, 2024. Smithsonian)
    -ESSAY: Why did the ancient Maya sacrifice children? DNA provides clues: Find links practice to “Hero Twins” myth and shows youngsters were related to today’s Indigenous Maya (ANDREW CURRY, 6/12/24, Science)
    -ESSAY: DOOMED SOULS Inside ancient tomb where humans were sacrificed… just so their dead loved ones wouldn’t be LONELY in the afterlife (Tom Malley, 8 Mar 2024, The Sun)
    -ESSAY: Aztec Sacrifice (Mark Cartwright, 2013, Common Lit)
    -ESSAY: The Logic of Desire: From Homer’s Odyssey to Alice in Wonderland (Alexander Schmid, April 22, 2024, Online Library of Liberty)
    -ESSAY: The Prophets: René Girard: By applying the lessons of great novels to real life, a professor predicted cancel culture decades before the internet existed. (Cynthia L. Haven, April 27, 2024, Free Press)
    -ESSAY: Virtue and Vice in the Workplace: Envy (JACOB HALEY | APRIL 03, 2024, Center for Faith & Culture)
    -ESSAY: The “hero’s journey” isn’t as universal as you think: The comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell claimed to have discovered the blueprint of every myth and legend. Today, his teachings are required reading in Hollywood, forming the basis for many hit films. In recent decades, however, some critics have argued that the monomyth isn't exactly universal. (Tim Brinkhof, 3/26/24, Big Think)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: Overwhelming and Collective Murder: The grand, gruesome theories of René Girard: a review of All Desire Is a Desire for Being, by René Girard (Sam Kriss, Harper's)
    -ESSAY: A Geometry of Desire: René Girard's Mimetic Theory, Part 1 (JOHN GANZ, DEC 02, 2023, Unpopular Front)
    -PODCAST: Know Your Enemy: René Girard and the Right, with John Ganz: Matt and Sam welcome back John Ganz to discuss René Girard, the Stanford polymath whose theory has inspired a devoted following—including Peter Thiel, Girard’s former student. (Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell, February 26, 2024, Dissent)
    -ESSAY: The Straussian Moment (Peter Thiel, 1/27/19)
    -ESSAY: Peter Thiel has launched a class war: The Praxis Society wants to build a dystopia for the rich (OLIVER BATEMAN, September 2023, UnHerd)
    -ESSAY: René Girard’s apocalypse is now: Tech bros don't realise he's a prophet of their decline (BLAKE SMITH, 2/01/22, UnHerd)
    -ESSAY: The two sides of envy at work: When workers feel envious of their peers, it can undermine collaborations — or inspire them to do better on the job. Can organizations harness the green gremlin to boost productivity? (Lesley Evans Ogden, 09.11.2021, Knowable)
    -ESSAY: Workplace Envy (Michelle K. Duffy,1 KiYoung Lee,2 and Elizabeth A. Adair1, January 2021, Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior)
    -ESSAY: MIMETIC APOCALYPSE (Tobias Huber , IM 1776)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: Overwhelming and Collective Murder: The grand, gruesome theories of René Girard (Sam Kriss, Harper's)
    -ESSAY: We Do Not Come in Peace (Cynthia L. Haven, May 14, 2024, Church Life Journal)
    -ESSAY: Learning What to Want: ‘A Defense of Judgement’ (Nate Klug, September 8, 2021, Commonweal)
    -ESSAY: Tony Hsieh’s Fatal Night: An Argument, Drugs, a Locked Door and Sudden Fire (David Streitfeld and Kristin Hussey, Jan. 26th, 2021, NY Times)
    -ESSAY: Civilization is from the Jews: Humanity evolved beyond the violence of the pagan world because of Hebraic ethics, universalized by the Abrahamic faiths. (Andrew Doran, May 25, 2024, European Conservative)
    -REVIEW: of Envy: A Theory of Social Behaviour by Helmut Schoeck (Art Carden, Liberty Classics)
    -ESSAY: Playwright Matthew Gasda: “We are all Girardians now—whether we know it or not.” (Cynthia L/ Haven, Book Haven)
    -ESSAY: Girard's Demystification of the Hegelian Struggle for Recognition (Andreas Wilmes, October 15, 2024, Church Life Journal)
    -REVIEW: of All Desire is a Desire for Being By René Girard, Edited and Introduced by Cynthia L. Haven (Justin D. Garrison, University Bookman)
    -ESSAY: Gnosticism: The ancient belief system may be the key to understanding modernity. (Lee Trepanier, March 26, 2025, Conservative Encyclopedia)
    -

PETER THIEL

    -ESSAY: A time for truth and reconciliation: Trump’s return to the White House augurs the ‘apokálypsis’ of the ancien regime’s secrets (Peter Thiel, 1/10.25, Financial Times)
    -ESSAY: Beware San Fran’s rationalist cult They dream of erasing you (Matthew Gasda, April 14, 2025, UnHerd)
    -ESSAY: Inside the New Right, Where Peter Thiel Is Placing His Biggest Bets: They’re not MAGA. They’re not QAnon. Curtis Yarvin and the rising right are crafting a different strain of conservative politics. (James Pogue, April 20, 2022, Vanity Fair)
    -ESSAY: I Have No Idea What Peter Thiel Is Trying to Say and It’s Making Me Really Uncomfortable: In a rambling op-ed for the Financial Times, the master of the universe ranted about the JFK conspiracy, ‘The Decameron,’ immortal rulers from ‘Gulliver’s Travels,’ and Jeffrey Epstein. (Matthew Gault, January 10, 2025, Gizmodo)
    -ESSAY: Why Is the Right Obsessed With Epic Poetry?: From Elon Musk to Jordan Peterson, a certain strand of conservatism has recruited the poetry of Homer and Dante in their culture war. (Orlando Reade, 1/06/25, The Nation)
    -ESSAY: Christianity=History=Transhumanism? (Peter Augustine Lawler, July 20, 2015, National Review)
    -PODCAST: Peter Thiel on Trump, Elon, and the Triumph of the Counter-Elites (Bari Weiss, November 14, 2024, Honestly)
    -PODCAST: Peter Thiel's Dream of Capitalism without Democracy / Quinn Slobodian (This is Hell)
    -ESSAY: The Apocalypse of the Sovereign Self (Dwight Longenecker, September 14th, 2023, Imaginative Conservative)
    -ESSAY: The Wide Angle: Peter Thiel and the American Apocalypse (Dave Troy, Jul 30, 2024 , Washington Spectator)
    -ESSAY: The Wide Angle: Understanding TESCREAL — the Weird Ideologies Behind Silicon Valley’s Rightward Turn (Dave Troy, May 1, 2023, Washington Spectator)
    -ARTICLE: Former far-right Austrian chancellor Kurz, who left office amid corruption allegations, set to join Peter Thiel investment firm (Thomas Barrabi, 12/30/21, MarketWatch)
    -ARTICLE: Peter Thiel, Donald Trump Jr. to co-host fundraisers for Cheney challenger (ALEX ISENSTADT, 12/30/2021, Politico)
    -ESSAY: Peter Thiel Gamed Silicon Valley, Donald Trump, and Democracy to Make Billions, Tax-Free: In an exclusive excerpt from The Contrarian, a new biography, the disruption-preaching power broker is revealed as just another rich guy desperate to keep his fortune from the IRS. (Max Chafkin, September 15, 2021, Bloomberg)
    -ESSAY: INSIDE THE NEW RIGHT, WHERE PETER THIEL IS PLACING HIS BIGGEST BETS: They’re not MAGA. They’re not QAnon. Curtis Yarvin and the rising right are crafting a different strain of conservative politics. (JAMES POGUE, APRIL 20, 2022, Vanity Fair)
    -INTERVIEW: The Black Box of Peter Thiel’s Beliefs: Biographer Max Chafkin says the billionaire is pressing his Trumpish ideology through Senate candidates and the Facebook boardroom—though what he really wants remains an unsettling mystery. (KATELYN FOSSETT, 09/20/2021, Politico)
    -INTERVIEW: The Strange and Terrifying Ideas of Neoreactionaries: Author Elizabeth Sandifer explains the dangerous ideas of the far-right neoreactionaries, who have ties to Silicon Valley and a hostility toward democracy. (Current Affairs, )
    -ESSAY: How Tony Hsieh’s Friends And Family Milked Millions In His Drug-Fueled Final Months (Angel Au-Yeung & David Jeans, Apr 23, 2023,, Forbes)
    -ESSAY: The Enigma of Peter Thiel: There Is No Enigma — He's a Fascist (JOHN GANZ, JUL 23, 2022, Unpopular Front)
    -ESSAY: HOW I JOINED THE RESISTANCE: On Mamaw and becoming Catholic. (JD Vance, 4/01/2020, The Lamp)
    -ESSAY: How Did Silicon Valley Turn into a Creepy Cult?: Tech leaders once gave us coolness, but now it's just Kool-Aid (TED GIOIA, JUL 03, 2024, Honest Broker)
    -REVIEW: of The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power by Max Chafkin (David Runciman, 23 September 2021, London Review of Books)
    -ESSAY: Notes on a Dangerous Mistake (Michael Walzer, Liberties Journal)
    -ESSAY: The Future of Expertise: How will the pandemic alter intellectual authority? (The Chronicle Review, NOVEMBER 2, 2021)
    -ESSAY: Rational Magic: Why a Silicon Valley culture that was once obsessed with reason is going woo (Tara Isabella Burton, New Atlantis)