Human activity is driven by desire. But we don’t desire the object of our desires. We desire something…

Human activity is driven by desire. But we don’t desire the object of our desires. We desire something because somebody else desires it. It’s social, a rivalry. The love triangle is an archetypal form of this mimetic desire. And it extends well beyond. Even to Covid. /1 https://t.co/4qSzStRZXn

Say the desire is ‘to end the pandemic’. Once a person or group sets that as a goal, immediately it sets up a space for rivalry. Others see this desire, and desire this same thing. But that want is driven by rivalry, rather than the thing. /2 https://t.co/2jnXXeJfST

Because somebody else desires it, and so they desire it. Mimetic desire, imitative rivalry. The love triangle begins. With Covid, the initial standard public health mechanism to control the pandemic immediately spawned rival ‘ending the pandemic’ suitors. /3 https://t.co/QJp1n9VY41

Now the rivalry begins. The boy in the middle (Covid in this analogy) is a bit player. Each team battles for their way to end the pandemic. BOTH teams actually want to end it. That’s what gets missed. The rivalry isn’t about that. /4 https://t.co/kE40OhVrhu

Each just wants to be the one that ends it. But the rivalry will escalate, and meanwhile nothing is done. Just as in a standard love triangle, eventually the supposed object of affection ( the boy here) becomes a bit player. Fodder only for the rivalry. /5 https://t.co/zWW3ECOQdB

Which is the ‘team sports’ I Tweet about often. As in actual team sports, eventually the game itself becomes secondary. The rivalry is what drives the process. Neither side will back down. So what ends it? /6 https://t.co/gUVYqhoOa6

A scapegoat. Something both sides can blame without having to retreat from their position. In love triangles this is tragically often the (supposed) object of common desire. Much domestic violence is this. /7 https://t.co/tlP5iAfhO8

What might a scapegoat be to resolve the rivalry over ending a pandemic? Anything, really. Provided it can be used to defuse the rivalry. A super lethal variant, for example. /8 https://t.co/zuXUhCG1yA

What’s important here I think though is to remember that both sides want to end the pandemic. That’s their desire. What makes that not happen is the continuous re-energising of the rivalry as to how. /end https://t.co/bDpJnafgHw