Peggy Haslar
St. Hildegard of Bingen Writing Group
Before he turned thirty, Luke Burgis had completed a college degree, worked on Wall Street, and founded successful companies. Yet when the biggest deal of his career fell through, the one he thought would secure the money and prestige he was seeking, he felt unexpectedly relieved. Why did the loss of all he’d been striving for seem mysteriously welcome?
In Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life, Burgis reveals what he discovered when he stopped chasing the next deal and began questioning the motives that had driven him. But Burgis does more than tell his own story in this book. Wanting is an invitation to question the quality of the things we most desire. Ultimately, Burgis discloses, Wanting is about “why you want what you want.”
Part memoir, part sociology, and part philosophical reflection, Wanting reveals why people want what they want by teaching us how to recognize when mimesis, the hidden power behind our desires, is at work. Once we understand how mimetic desire operates, we see it everywhere, and we are finally offered a daring opportunity to see how it operates in us.
While Burgis struggled to understand the dreams he chased in his twenties and the relief he felt when the ultimate deal was denied, a mentor encouraged him to look into the ideas of French academic René Girard. Girard’s theories about the role mimesis plays in human behavior changed the way Burgis looked at everything in his life, and in Part I of this book, he explains why.
We tend to assume our desires are completely original. Girard calls this “the Romantic Lie.” In reality, our desires are mediated by models: people, groups, or things that help us know what to want. While illustrating Girardian concepts, Burgis employs his gift as a storyteller. We learn, for example, of the legendary rivalry between Ferruccio Lamborghini and Enzo Ferrari and of the American Tobacco Company’s advertising campaign that enticed women in the 1920s to enjoy the “freedom” of smoking by strategically placing an attractive woman with a cigarette at the New York City Easter parade.
Burgis continues narrating his own story as well. He reflects on the cultural landscape and offers scientific support for Girard’s theories in Andrew Meltzoff’s research in imitation and social-cognitive development. His reflections render Girardian thought increasingly accessible. From mythology to mechanical engineering, from Seinfeld to Scripture, we begin to understand how mimetic desire leads to rivalry, social contagion, and scapegoating.
But we also sense it doesn’t have to be this way. Once the power of mimesis is unmasked, it can be leveraged in the process of personal transformation. Burgis explores this possibility in Part II. Considering insights from Augustine, Dante, Dostoevsky, C. S. Lewis, and Flannery O’Connor, Burgis urges readers to begin discerning which of our own desires are “thin” and ephemeral and which are “thick” and satisfying. Sidebars throughout the book provide “tactics” for applying mimetic theory in positive ways, such as naming our own models, sharing stories of deeply fulfilling action, and investing in deep silence. Simple illustrations along the way remind us to smile.
“Desire is by its very nature transcendent,” Burgis reminds us. “We are always wanting more.” Following “thick desires” can free us from the mimetic rivalry, political scapegoating, and copycat consumerism that so often drive us. The greatest writers and artists in history were “not confined to the popular desires of their age,” but transcended them, he points out. Wanting concludes with a model of leadership that encourages readers to push past self-serving goals by helping others find meaning and mission.
Two appendices, a glossary of terms and a mimetic theory reading list, are helpful additions to the text. The final appendix, a compilation of motivational themes, is intriguing but lacks development. The link to a corresponding online assessment (MCode) is no longer active, so an updated edition of this book would be most welcome.While Wanting is initially valuable as an introduction to the work of René Girard, it is much more than that. Wanting exposes the inner workings of the human heart and charts a path to self-examination and positive action. Readers weary of social contagion and trendy temptations will find Wanting a helpful lens for understanding the cultural landscape and a pathway to a life enriched by contemplation and contribution.