MIMETIC DESIRES, PATTERNS AND PRIMAL NATURE
How to Strip
It’s the start of a new month, so Happy New Month. It’s been how many moons since I last wrote to you? Three months?
I have missed you. And I imagine you have missed me too.
If you ask me where I’ve been, the answers will burst out of me in the same way truth comes off the mouth of a Nigerian politician.
Short answer: I have been surviving.
Staying alive is a chore, being alive is work, living is living.
A number of things have happened to me, some changes too. I’ll love to tell you about all of these things, but let’s take things one at a time.
Some of the things that have happened to me:
I got another job
Made a new friend
Tried a few new things
Started swimming
Revamped my personal philosophy
Have I mentioned that I now have a cat?
I didn’t?
I have a cat. Her name is Nala.
She is a sweet being with a touch of Nigerian madness.
Nala is supposed to be this sweet cat that eats spaghetti and noodles and bread dipped in mayonnaise and okpa (yes, she has Igbo blood in her), and meat and loves tasty and spicy Nigerian soups.
She is supposed to be sweet, gentle, and loving.
And she is all these…sometimes, until she isn’t.
Yesterday, as I got ready to go to the office, my eyes bare of my glass (that story is another one I’ll tell soon), I saw Nala with a black and white paper. My sight is foggy so I wasn’t sure what it was. Then I called G’s attention. she comes and says Nala has a bird with her.
A bird? What is my sweet cat doing with a bird?
Before the words could leave my mouth, Nala was tearing into the bird, head bent, focused like a determined politician ready to strip us off our commonwealth.
I was shocked and amazed.
I’ve always known she is a cat, and a hunter, but I wasn’t ready to see her in her primal nature, tearing a bird with her claws and teeth.
She looked different – the innocent cat that sat on my laps an hour ago had disappeared, in its place was a ferocious, bird-eating carnivore. I saw Nala in her truest nature.
In her primal nature, Nala is a carnivore. Just because she cosplays as a sweet pet doesn’t make her a pet. She wants to tear flesh apart, suck bloods and kill animals. That’s what makes her Nala.
What makes you who you are?
No, not the things society says you should want?
Or the things your family says you should need.
Not the life that everyone else defines as good, but the one you truly want?
I was recently introduced to Rene Girard, the French philosopher who popularized mimetic desires.
Mimetic desires are things we want because society says we should want them.
The desires we have, Girard says, are not always our truest desires, they’re the desires of the majority, what the community defines as successful.
Although, I should add a disclaimer: I have not truly unpacked Girard, my brief interaction with him has opened my eyes to WHAT I TRULY WANT.
What are our PRIMAL needs?
Primal Needs in this context aren’t dealing with basal, fleshy desires – sex and food and shelter. No. I am asking, WHAT DO YOU TRULY WANT FROM LIFE AND FOR YOURSELF?
If you are STRIPPED (an interesting concept that Nietzsche expounds on in his writings) of what you currently have, who are you? What do you want?
I got talking with this new friend I made recently (an interesting human), and we spoke about REBELLION. They said they were in their first year of rebellion, and we laughed.
As I write this, I think of how they defined rebellion, and I think being rebellious is STRIPPING yourself off societal desires, off MIMETIC desires, and doing what you TRULY WANT; being who you truly want to be.
This might sound interesting to the person planning on going off the rails morally and shit, but that’s not what I am talking about.
What I mean by stripping oneself is that you don’t let society, the books you’ve read, the community you belong to, the friends you keep, define what YOU WANT. Instead, let you, you deepest and realest part of you DEFINE what you WANT.
I’d love to talk about WANTS and NEEDS, and why WANTS should be more desirable and pursued than need, but now is not the time.
So, what have I been saying in over 700 words?
Know who you are, what you want, and be shameless about BEING truthful to yourself. Don’t allow people’s opinion and desires define what you want.
Look closely at your life’s patterns.
Are you happy with your desires?
The cars, the perfect job, the perfect spouse, the business, the fashion, all of it, are you happy with these things?
It’ll be a herculean task, but it’s something we need to do.
Using Nietzsche carelessly here: HAVE YOU STRIPPED, or are you still being ruled by MIMETIC DESIRES?
Before I drop my golden pen, a few things I’ll need from you.
Please subscribe to my YouTube Channel and like my latest video where I talked about making BIG DECISIONS and LIFE NOT KILLING YOU
And secondly, my Baby started her Social Media Management Business, SMM JUNKIE. Please help me follow her on Instagram so she knows I am the MAN for her. Thank you for saving my relationship!
PS: I have a major decision I’ll share with you soon. Keep your fingers crossed.
PS2: Like I always say on Radio: stay out of trouble, spread love, and seek the truth. Adios!