Originally published at The Catholic Thing
Remember your first day in a new school or at a new job? The excitement of embarking on a new adventure, but the fear of wondering: Will I make friends? What will people be like? Will I fit in? In his brilliant book, Wanting, Luke Burgis coins the term “Freshmanistan” to capture the everyday experience.
Burgis connects that experience with the concept of “mimesis” (imitation of a special sort) as elaborated by the great Catholic philosopher and professor of literature René Girard. Mimesis typifies humanity according to Girard. Like other animals, we share instincts that govern basic urges for the promotion of our lives, but we also have something more: human desires. The latter are open and undetermined. How do we decide what we want? Girard argues we learned them from observing other people.
For example, I go out with friends to eat but nothing catches my eye. I ask the others what they are ordering. Suddenly I find that I want something I never wanted before: this is mimetic desire in operation. I imitate the desires of others without realizing it. This is a feature of human life from earliest childhood throughout adulthood. We learn to speak and much
