Ever feel like you’re only buying that new Stanley cup or upgrading your phone because everyone else is doing it? It’s kind of an annoying realization. Honestly, most of us like to think we have original taste, but René Girard spent his entire career proving we’re basically just copycats. In his landmark book, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, he takes this idea of imitation and turns it into a master key that unlocks everything from ancient myths to why people get "canceled" on Twitter today.
It’s a heavy title. Sounds like a doom-and-goster prophecy, right? But the book is actually a piece of brilliant cultural anthropology. Girard, a French polymath who ended up at Stanford, argues that human society isn't held together by contracts or shared values. It’s held together by a dark, hidden cycle of violence and the "scapegoat" we all love to hate.
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The Secret Engine of Desire
Girard starts with a simple, almost annoying truth: you don’t know what you want.
Seriously. Aside from basic needs like water or a nap, your "wants" are borrowed. This is what he calls mimetic desire. You see someone you admire—a "model"—and you start wanting what they want. It’s not about the object itself; it's about the person who possesses it. We want their status, their "being."
But here’s the kicker. When two people want the same thing, they become rivals.
If I want the last croissant because you want it, we aren't friends anymore. We’re competitors. As this spreads through a group, it creates what Girard calls a "mimetic crisis." Everyone is imitating everyone else’s anger and greed. The community starts to fall apart. Chaos. Absolute mess.
How does the group fix it? They find a scapegoat.
How the Scapegoat Saves the Day (Temporarily)
When a community is about to explode from internal fighting, something weird happens. The "all against all" violence shifts into "all against one."
Suddenly, everyone agrees that that guy—the outsider, the weirdo, or maybe the king—is the reason for all the trouble. If we just get rid of him, everything will be fine. So, they kill him or exile him. And like magic, the tension vanishes. The group feels a rush of peace and unity.
They’re so impressed by this sudden peace that they think the victim must have had some magical power. This, Girard says, is how ancient religions were born. The victim is "sacred" because they caused the peace. We call it "the scapegoat mechanism." It’s the hidden foundation of almost every human culture.
The title I See Satan Fall Like Lightning refers to a quote from Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. For Girard, "Satan" isn't a guy with a pitchfork. Satan is the personification of this violent mimetic cycle. When Jesus says he sees Satan fall, he’s saying that the old way of keeping peace through scapegoating is being exposed and destroyed.
Why the Bible Changed Everything
This is where Girard gets controversial. He argues that the Bible is unique because, for the first time in history, the story is told from the perspective of the victim.
- In ancient myths (like Romulus and Remus), the story usually sides with the mob. The victim deserved it.
- In the Gospels, the mob is wrong. The victim—Jesus—is innocent.
By revealing that the scapegoat is actually an innocent person and the mob is just caught in a "mimetic contagion," the Bible "demythologizes" violence. It ruins the trick. Once you see that the person everyone is attacking is just a regular human being, the "magical peace" of the scapegoat mechanism stops working.
The "Satanic" system of order-through-violence falls like lightning because its secret is out.
The Modern Scapegoat: Why We Can’t Stop "Canceling"
You might think we’re too civilized for this now. We don’t sacrifice goats or stone people in the town square. But Girard would say we’ve just moved the ritual online.
Have you ever seen a massive pile-on on social media? Someone says something slightly off, and within three hours, ten thousand people are screaming for their head. It feels righteous. It feels like "justice." But if you look closely, it’s often just a way for a fractured group to feel united again.
We’re still addicted to the rush of "all against one."
The problem is that because of the influence of the Gospels, we are now "pro-victim." Even our modern lynch mobs claim to be acting on behalf of victims. Girard calls this the "other side" of the revelation. We use the language of the victim to create new victims. It’s a paradox that makes our modern world incredibly volatile.
Actionable Insights: Breaking the Cycle
If you’re tired of the drama and the constant feeling of "keeping up with the Joneses," Girard’s work offers some practical, if difficult, ways out.
- Audit Your Desires: Next time you really, really want something, ask yourself: "Who am I imitating?" Recognizing that your desire is mimetic is the first step to gaining some distance from it.
- Opt Out of the Mob: When you see a "scandal" breaking out online or in your friend group, resist the urge to join the pile-on. Even if the person did something wrong, the "unanimity" of the mob is almost always a lie.
- Choose Better Models: You can't stop being mimetic—it’s how humans learn. But you can choose who you imitate. Instead of imitating rivals who make you feel competitive and small, look for models who are "external" to your world—people you aren't competing with for the same "stuff."
- Practice Forgiveness: It sounds cliché, but for Girard, forgiveness is the only thing that actually stops the mimetic cycle. Retaliation just keeps the ball bouncing.
To really dive deeper into this, pick up a copy of I See Satan Fall Like Lightning. It’s not an easy summer read, but it might just change the way you see every news headline and every office conflict for the rest of your life.
One thing you can do today is pick one area of your life where you feel competitive—maybe at work or in a hobby—and intentionally "give up" a small win to your rival. See how it feels to break the cycle of "one-upmanship."